new england’s journal of higher …...raising pell in march, democrats in the u.s. house proposed...

CONNECTIONNEW ENGLAND’S JOURNAL

OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTVOLUME XVI, NUMBER 1 SUMMER 2001 $3.95

Technology Commercial izat ionResearch for the Community

KNOWLEDGE applied

The End of New England’s Economic Exuberance • Spinning Partnerships in SoutheasternMassachusetts • Degree Data • Community Heritage in Education • Calling Minority Teachers • More …

ALSO:

CONNECTION SUMMER 2001 3

Volume XVI, No. 1Summer 2001CONNECTION

NEW ENGLAND’S JOURNAL

OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

C O V E R S T O R I E S

13 Knowledge Applied13 Change in R&D Expenditures, 1990-1999 14 R&D Expenditures by Field16 Patents to Universities, 1969-1999

14 Selling Knowledge?R&D Soothsayers and High Priests of Venture Capital Are in the Temple of the AcademyAlan Robert Earls

18 Combining Research, Outreach and Student Learning A New Model in Rhode IslandDeborah Grossman-Garber, Arthur Gold andThomas Husband

21 Research for the Community Bates Students Learn as they Work Magic for Lewiston and Auburn Donald W. Harward

C O M M E N T A R Y

23 The End of Economic ExuberanceNew England’s Economic OutlookRoss Gittell

25 New Fabric A Community College Spins Partnershipsin Southeastern MassachusettsJohn J. Sbrega

D E P A R T M E N T S

5 Editor’s MemoJohn O. Harney

6 Short Courses

10 At NEBHE... Weygand Named President, CowanNamed Chair • A Telecom Alliance • Seeing the Light

43 BooksAdjunctivitis Teaching Without Tenure reviewed by Deborah Hirsch

What Gives American Foundations reviewed by David Wagner

Granite Staters The New Hampshire Century reviewed by John O. Harney

46 Campus: News Briefly Noted

48 Data Connection

28 Scholarship CityHow Fall River Is Creating American Dreams

30 Calling Minority TeachersEleanor M. McMahon

32 A Matter of Degrees Academic Degrees by Level,New England vs. the United States

33 Local Color How Community Heritage Enhances EducationMichael Hoberman

35 The Challenge of Innovation A Call for Risk-Taking in AcademiaPaul LeBlanc and Clayton Christensen

37 Flunking on CostsNational Report Card Raises Alarm overAffordability of Higher Education in New HampshireDonald P. Wharton

38 Interstate 6New England’s Higher Education Compact HasStood the Test of TimeMelvin H. Bernstein

Cover art by Cortney Skinner.


E D I T O R ’ S M E M O

Saint Michael’s College is a sort of pioneer in encouraging students todo something for the poor instead of the beer companies during springbreak. For 16 years, the college has been arranging for students to trav-

el to various sites to serve the needy during the March vacation. This pastspring, more than 100 Saint Michael’s students worked with homeless peo-ple in Hartford, Conn., and AIDS patients in New York City, replanted indige-nous plants at the Grand Canyon and built a home in Minneapolis throughHabitat for Humanity.

Such service initiatives are increasingly common. As part of an honorscourse called Grass-Roots Community Development, about 100 University ofMassachusetts Amherst students performed emergency home repairs andother services for needy people in nearby Holyoke, Mass., and in rural Virginia.

This fall, the University of Vermont goes a step farther, providingAmeriCorps*VISTA volunteers with the opportunity to provide service toVermont communities and earn up to nine undergraduate or graduate cred-its for structured reflection on their experience. The so-called VISTA schol-ars will attend UVM workshops, create portfolios and work with facultyadvisors during residency weekends on campus.

The service programs create unexpected spinoffs. Several Saint Michael’sstudents who spent spring break working at a Florida camp serving migrantfarm workers were invited by the camp operator to return as teachers in thesummer. Three Fairfield University students who spent spring break con-ducting research in Nicaragua decided to return on their own in June tobuild houses for people whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Mitch.

Service programs also teach unexpected lessons. One group of SaintMichael’s students who spent spring break working with AIDS patients inHaiti reported back to the Saint Michael’s board of trustees that it seemedunfair for them to do the work when jobs are so scarce for Haitian nationals.

Then there is the touchy question among academics of whether a week ofgrueling work in a Hartford soup kitchen is worthy of academic credit. AtSaint Michael’s, which does not award credit for the programs, PresidentMarc A. vanderHeyden says it’s more important that the service experienceinform a student’s regular coursework: “I’d like to see a history major whospends the spring working with homeless people in Hartford go back toclasses and write a paper on homelessness in ancient Venice—to connectthe experience with what he’s into anyway,” says vanderHeyden.

Now, some of the region’s research-based programs are harnessing thecreativity and practical good sense of service-oriented learning. The CoverStories in this issue of CONNECTION recount, in particular, how two distinct-ly different New England institutions—the University of Rhode Island andBates College—are encouraging students to apply their research in the pub-lic interest. It’s a case of student activism meets experiential learning meetsresume-building. As Bates College President Donald Harward says of thecollege’s applied research in Lewiston and Auburn, Maine: “Bates is able toenhance hands-on learning while addressing community needs.”

Our Cover Stories also offer a look at the changing world of knowledgeapplied in the private interest—replete with issues of patents, licenses, incu-bators, venture capital and, yes, conflicts of interest.

Just as we went to press, two things happened that seemed to reaffirmthe timeliness of this exploration. First, Harvard launched its new ResearchMatters website to show how its scientific research affects people’s lives.Then, the industry-sponsored Business Higher Education Forum issued amajor study of university-industry collaborations that was quickly assailedfor glossing over the ethical snares presented by corporatized academicresearch. These issues will bear watching, for in New England, knowledge

matters, especially when it’s applied—and applied generously.

CONNECTION: NEW ENGLAND’S JOURNAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTis published four times a year by the New EnglandBoard of Higher Education, 45 Temple Place, Boston,MA 02111-1325 Phone: 617.357.9620Fax: 617.338.1577Email: [email protected]

Vol. XVI, No. 1 Summer 2001 ISSN 0895-6405Copyright © 2001 by the New England Board of Higher Education.

Publisher: John C. HoyExecutive Editor: John O. HarneyNEBHE/CONNECTION Intern: Gillian A. DrutchasDirector of Publications: Charlotte StrattonDesign and Production: The Publication Group

Advertising Sales andMarketing Coordinator: Christine Quinlan

Subscription Information: $20 per year (4 issues);regular issues $3.95 each; annual FACTS issue $14.95.

Advertising rates are available upon request.

CONNECTION is printed in New England. CONNECTIONis indexed in PAIS International and in ERIC’s CurrentIndex to Journals in Education. CONNECTION isavailable in microform and electronically fromUniversity Microfilms, 800 North Zeeb Road, AnnArbor, MI 48106. A cumulative index of CONNECTIONarticles and abstracts of recent articles are accessibleon the World Wide Web at www.nebhe.org.

The New England Board of Higher Education is anonprofit, congressionally authorized, interstate agencywhose mission is to foster cooperation and the efficientuse of resources among New England’s approximately280 colleges and universities. NEBHE was establishedby the New England Higher Education Compact, a 1955agreement among the states of Connecticut, Maine,Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island andVermont. NEBHE operates a variety of programs forNew England students, including the tuition-savingRegional Student Program, and advances regional discussion of critical issues through a conference seriesand the quarterly journal, CONNECTION.

Chair: Nancy I. Chard, Chair, Senate EducationCommittee, Vermont Legislature

President: John C. Hoy

CONNECTION Editorial Advisory Board

Kenneth HookerColumnist, Boston Globe

Richard Barringer Professor, University of Southern Maine

Laura FreidExecutive Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations, Brown University

Betsy KeadyMarket Director, The Forum Corp.

Arnold KochArnold Koch and Associates

Thomas L. McFarlandFormer Director, University Press of New England

Ian MenziesHingham, Mass.

Neil RoldeSewall’s Hill, Maine

CONNECTIONNEW ENGLAND’S JOURNAL

OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

John O. Harney is executive editor of CONNECTION.

for less severe offenders and studentswho are rehabilitating themselves.

In 1999, Hampshire College becamethe first college to institute a loan program to permit students affected bythe provision to borrow funds directlyfrom Hampshire.

“Education is the best antidote wehave to most of our social ills,” saidHampshire President Gregory S.Prince Jr. “Why would we want toexclude people from the educationalstream when trying to keep them inthe stream is one of the most impor-tant things we can do?”

OmbudsmanThe University of MassachusettsLowell’s creation early this year of thenew position of ombudsman revealsjust how complex the business of han-dling complaints involving race orother conflicts on campus can get.UMass Lowell’s administration news-paper, The Shuttle, noted, “In the past,there were limited routes to the solu-tion of such problems. You could go to

S H O R T C O U R S E S

6 NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Raising PellIn March, Democrats in the U.S. Houseproposed raising the maximum PellGrant for needy students to $6,000 in fis-cal 2002, up from the current $3,750.The maximum grant would grow anoth-er $500 in each of the following twoyears to a total of $7,000 in fiscal 2004.

But President Bush’s budget for fis-cal 2002 would increase the maximumPell by only $100 to $3,850.

Bush proposed raising funding forTRIO programs for disadvantaged stu-dents by $50 million to $780 million, butslashing $68 million from the GEAR UPinitiative that helps middle-school stu-dents prepare for college. Current fund-ing allows only 5 percent of eligiblestudents to be served by TRIO, accord-ing to the National Alliance for Equity inHigher Education.

Bush proposed no additional fundsfor campus-based, federal student-aidprograms, including College Work-Study, Supplemental EducationalOpportunity Grants and Perkins Loans.

Bush’s budget would raise student-loan forgiveness limits to $17,500,from $5,000, for math and sciencemajors who teach those subjects forfive years in schools with large num-bers of disadvantaged students. Thebudget encourages greater college sav-ings by raising to $5,000, from $500,the annual cap on contributions totax-free education savings accounts.

On the research front, Bush wouldincrease funding for the NationalInstitutes of Health by 14 percent overfiscal 2001. But funding for NASA andthe National Science Foundationwould not keep pace with inflation.

A House Science CommitteeDemocratic staff memo critiquing the Bush budget pointed out a newfissure in research politics, warningthat “the existing imbalance betweenbiomedical R&D and R&D in thephysical sciences has become muchmore pronounced.”

The War on Poor StudentsOne of the more controversial provi-sions of the federal Higher EducationAct of 1998 denies federal financial aidto students convicted of drug offenses.

Under the HEA Drug Provision,which took effect last July, about 8,000students were denied aid for 2000-01. Anestimated 280,000 students left the ques-tion on the federal aid application aboutdrug convictions blank and were notdenied aid. But this year, the EducationDepartment warns students explicitlynot to leave the question blank.

Like earlier rules that hinge financialaid on Selective Service registration, thedrug provision targets students whocan’t afford to attend college withoutfinancial aid but ignores higher-incomestudents who may use or sell drugs orneglect to register for selective service.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank ofMassachusetts has co-sponsored legislation to repeal the provision.“Someone who commits murder orarmed robbery is not automaticallybarred from financial aid eligibility,”Frank noted, “but if you have even onenonviolent drug conviction you can’t getany aid for a year, with longer bans forpeople with additional convictions.”

Frank added that it may make senseto bar aid for major drug dealers but not

Snippets “Higher education remains very vulnerable … and when the present boomeconomy begins to slow, the double-digit tuition increases of the pastcould well return.”

—Introduction to January 2001 Institute for Higher Education

Policy working paper titled “Looking Back, Going Forward: The Carnegie

Commission on Tuition.”

“Although their revenue sources differ, all sectors in higher education willprobably take a significant hit in a prolonged recession.”

—Macalester College President Michael S. McPherson and

Williams College President Morton Owen Schapiro, writing in The

Chronicle of Higher Education.

* * * *“String Theorists for a Living Wage.”

—Sign seen during spring demonstrations by Harvard University

students demanding a mandatory minimum wage of $10.25

for all Harvard workers and contractors.

“They’ve gotten more attention because, for the most part, the students atHarvard are white, wealthy and prestigious. Over here, we’re mostly work-ing class and black.”

—Northeastern University student Justin Brown quoted in

the weekly Boston Phoenix on why the Harvard protesters

got more media attention than their Northeastern counterparts

who staged a sit-in to protest the university’s plans to relocate the

John D. O’Bryant African-American Institute.

S H O R T C O U R S E S

the Affirmative Action office, or to adean, or the provost, or possibly thecampus police. But you knew that, indoing so, you were starting down aslippery slope; that once the processwas started—once the university wasofficially involved—it would be hard toslow it down.” And that’s from the uni-versity news office!

Meanwhile, a 1999 Survey onRacial Understanding at RhodeIsland College found that 70 percentof students did not know where toreport racial incidents on campus.

Clarification: The “Selected Websites” in the Winter2001 issue of CONNECTION containedan incorrect URL for the Vermont Department of EconomicDevelopment. The correct URL is http://thinkvermont.com. The URLlisted [www.det.state.vt.us] is theVermont Department of Employment &Training.


New England’s Clout in WashingtonCONNECTION recently conducted an informal analysis of New England’s representation on some national education-related boards and legislative committees. Findings:

Representatives Total of New England

Organization Body Members Insitutions %

U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions 20 6 30%

The College Board Board of Trustees 30 5 17%

Educause Board of Directors 13 2 15%

Assn. of Telecommunications Professionals in Higher Education Board of Directors 9 1 11%

Council of Independent Colleges Board of Directors 32 2 6%

American Association for Community Colleges Board of Directors 32 2 6%

American Association for Higher Education Board of Directors 20 1 5%

Association of American Colleges and Universities Board of Directors 22 1 5%

Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges Board of Directors 22 1 5%

U.S. House Committee on Science 47 2 4%

American Council on Education Board of Directors 24 1 4%

U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce 49 1 2%

National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges Board of Directors 28 0 0%

Council of Graduate Schools Board of Directors 13 0 0%

AGB Center for Public Higher Ed. Trusteeship and Governance Advisory Council 23 0 0%

New England higher education institutions as a share of U.S. total 7%

Words of WisdomWe need you to formulate and implement the next Marshall Plan, the next G.I.

Bill, the next Civil Rights Act. We need your commitment to find a cure for AIDS,

breast cancer and Alzheimer’s. And we need your vision and courage to confront

the threat of global warming.

That modest plea delivered by U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman to graduates atTrinity College’s 175th commencement in May was hardly the only invitation togreatness in this season of sage advice (though President Bush used the occasionof Yale’s commencement to joke about his bad grades at the college).

Following is a sampling of other spring 2001 commencement speakers at NewEngland campuses:U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, University of Connecticut

Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, UMass Dartmouth

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Brown University

Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, New England Institute of Technology

Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, Lasell College

Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderón, Boston University

Former Rwandan Assembly Speaker Joseph Sebarenzi, Marlboro College

Former NAACP Chair Myrlie Evers-Williams, Simmons College

Rock star Bono of U2, Harvard University

Mister Rogers creator Fred Rogers, Middlebury College

Educator Guadalupe Quintanilla, University of New Hampshire at Manchester

Composer John Corigliano, New England Conservatory

Actor Kelsey Grammer and Monster.com CEO Jeff Taylor, UMass Amherst

Journalist Juan Williams, Bryant College

Journalist Gwen Ifill, University of New Hampshire

Journalist and author Edward Humes, Hampshire College

The New England Boardof Higher Education(NEBHE) named former

U.S. Congressman Robert A.Weygand of Rhode Island to bethe next president and CEO ofthe nonprofit, six-state educationagency, effective July 1, 2001.

The 48-member board of the regionalhigher education agency approvedWeygand’s appointment in May duringits annual spring board meeting at theEndicott House in Dedham, Mass. Theboard is comprised of distinguishedacademics, business leaders and elect-ed officials from Connecticut, Maine,Massachusetts, New Hampshire,Rhode Island and Vermont.

Weygand succeeds John C. Hoy,who is stepping down after 23 years in charge of the six-state organization.

A landscape architect by training,Weygand earned degrees from theUniversity of Rhode Island in 1971 and1976 and served on a variety of publicboards before being elected to theRhode Island Assembly in 1984. Heserved as a state representative fromEast Providence from 1985 to 1993 andthen as Rhode Island’s lieutenant gover-nor from 1993 to 1997.

In 1996, Weygand was elected tothe U.S. House of Representativeswhere he served two terms and was a member of the House BudgetCommittee and the House Bankingand Financial Services Committee.

“Bob Weygand fulfills NEBHE’sleadership needs in that he is skilled in state and federal education policyformation and persuasive and ener-getic in policy implementation,” saidformer New Hampshire state Rep.

ies on New England economic issuesranging from the promise of then-emerg-ing industries such as biotechnology tothe underrepresentation of minorities inNew England higher education and theworkforce. Many of these reports led toaction-oriented NEBHE initiatives inthe 1990s.

Cowan Elected ChairNEBHE elected Middlesex CommunityCollege President Carole A. Cowan to beits next chair, beginning in spring 2002.

Prior to becoming MiddlesexCommunity College president in 1990,Cowan served for two years as the college’s dean of administration andfinance. She was chair of the businessdivision from 1979 to 1988 and a full-time faculty member in the businessdivision from 1976 to 1979.

Established in 1969, MiddlesexCommunity College is the largest com-munity college in the Commonwealth ofMassachusetts, enrolling more than7,200 full- and part-time students.Under Cowan’s leadership, Middlesexweathered severe budget cuts whilesecuring permanent campuses inBedford and Lowell, Mass. The collegehas established partnerships in 27countries and become a key player in

William Belvin, who chaired the NEBHEPresidential Search Committee.Weygand was chosen after a nationalsearch that attracted roughly 100 candi-dates from the education, business andgovernment sectors.

NEBHE was established in 1955 by acongressionally authorized, interstatecompact designed to encourage cooper-ation among New England colleges anduniversities, which now number nearly280. NEBHE programs focus on therelationship between New Englandhigher education and regional econom-ic development.

Hoy became president in 1978 andserved in the position longer than any pre-vious NEBHE chief executive. Raised inYonkers, N.Y., the son of a sheriff, Hoygraduated from Wesleyan University andwent on to serve there as dean for specialacademic affairs, dean of admissions andfreshmen, and assistant to the president.He also served stints as director ofadmissions at Lake Forest College and asthe first dean of admissions atSwarthmore College. From 1969 to 1978,he was vice chancellor for university andstudent affairs at the University ofCalifornia, Irvine.

In the 1980s, under Hoy’s leadership,NEBHE commissioned benchmark stud-


Weygand: persuasive and energetic. Cowan: led college through tough times.

Former U.S. Congressman Robert A. Weygand Named President

of New England Board of Higher Education

Community College President Carole Cowan Elected Chair

A T N E B H E …

education reform and workforce develop-ment at home.

Cowan earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Salem StateCollege, a certificate of advanced grad-uate study from the former BostonState College and her doctorate in high-er education administration from theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst.

Cowan will succeed Vermont state Sen. Nancy I. Chard. Other NEBHEchairs have included: former NewHampshire Gov. Walter Peterson, formerUniversity of Maine System ChancellorRobert L. Woodbury and the late TuftsUniversity President Jean Mayer.

A Telecom AllianceTelecommunications technologies aretransforming higher education and thenonprofit sector, but many organizationshave a tough time accessing reliableinformation on cost-effective telecom-munications options and solutions.

Now, NEBHE has joined with threeother regional education agencies toaddress the problem. The organizationsrecently launched a national alliancedesigned to provide schools, colleges,state agencies, libraries and other non-profit groups with low-cost access toquality telecommunications programsand to provide leadership in creatingtechnology policies and standards.

The American TelEdComm-unications Alliance (ATAlliance) wasformed by a groundbreaking agreementamong the nation’s four regional educa-tional compacts: NEBHE, theMidwestern Higher EducationCommission (MHEC); the SouthernRegional Education Board (SREB); andthe Western Interstate Commis-sion forHigher Education (WICHE) along withMiCTA, a national telecommunicationsassociation of more than 12,000 nonprof-it organizations. The presidents of thefive organizations will serve as foundingmembers of the ATAlliance board.

“The new partnership makes it possi-ble for any New England nonprofit orga-nization to take advantage of thecollective purchasing power of theATAlliance and its negotiating power inbringing the highest level of telecommu-nications technologies to New England

PhotonicsR e s e a r c hCenter reveals thatfive of the six New England states rankamong the top 10 in photonics firms per100,000 populations. (The only excep-tion was Maine.) Economists at a recentmeeting of the New England EconomicProject spoke of an “optical valley”developing in Boston’s northern sub-urbs and southern New Hampshire,comprised of optics companies such asStocker Yale.

Yet just three New England commu-nity-technical colleges currently traintechnicians at the associate degreelevel, and these programs graduatefewer than 30 technicians a year.

Last summer, NEBHE received a$490,000 grant from the NationalScience Foundation to train NewEngland middle-school, secondary-school and postsecondary educatorsand career counselors to introducephotonics education into the class-room.

The two-and-a-half year PHOTONproject, under the direction of JudyDonnelly, a physics professor at ThreeRivers Community College in Norwich,Conn., features a series of professionaldevelopment workshops designed toestablish a foundation for introducingbasic optics and laser principles intoexisting educational programs. ThreeRivers offers Connecticut’s only photon-ics engineering technology associatedegree program.

In the first year of the program,PHOTON workshops will give partici-pants in-depth theoretical and hands-on instruction in basic optics and laserprinciples along with applications tai-lored to appropriate educational levels.Educators will receive a comprehensiveoptics laboratory kit to use in demon-strating laser technology principles attheir home institutions. The workshopswill also include tours of local photon-ics industry sites.

During the following academic year,participants will receive technical assis-tance to implement new curricula. Afinal two-day workshop allows partici-pants to share implementation modelsand strategies. ■

institutions at the lowest cost,” saidNEBHE President John C. Hoy.

The ATAlliance will accomplish itsgoals in several ways:

■ Through the ATAlliance, educationorganizations will be able to maketelecommunications purchases atlower costs.

■ ATAlliance members will receive up-to-date information on qualitytelecommunications services.

■ Colleges, schools, state agencies andlibraries will have access to better andfaster solutions to telecommunica-tions problems.

During 2001, the ATAlliance plans toissue RFPs for the best services available in Web and application hosting, alternatives to local phone service providers and network hard-ware vendors.

Colleges and universities, schools,state agencies, libraries and other non-profit organizations may participate inATAlliance contracts and programs foran annual membership fee of $75.

NEBHE’s ATAlliance website can befound at www.nebhe.org/alliance/ New E n g l a n d ATA l l i a n c e . h t m l .Information about the ATAlliance isalso available on the national websiteat www.ATAlliance.org.

Seeing the LightOne of the cutting-edge fields fuelingNew England’s Information Economyis photonics—the generation, manipu-lation, transport, detection and use oflight energy. In the same way that elec-tronics was critical in 20th centurytechnological advances, optics willplay a profound role in the 21st centu-ry. Mass-produced semiconductorchips are manufactured using opticallithography. Lasers are increasinglyused to replace traditional surgery.And fiber optics has transformed thetelecommunications industry.

About 350,000 photonics technicianswere employed in the United States in1994 and the number was expected toexceed 740,000 this year, according tothe Center for Occupa-tional Researchand Development. Another study con-ducted by the University of Connecticut



Knowledge Applied

N ew England university research is famous for creating lifesaving medical breakthroughs, new super-strong materials and pollution-fighting environmental technologies. The region’s university researchlabs also spawn new companies—sometimes whole new industries—while providing hands-on learn-

ing opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.Indeed, New England colleges and universities conducted more than $2 billion in academic research and

development (R&D) in 1999 and continued to lead the nation in university R&D expenditures per capita at $160,compared with $102 nationally, according to a New England Board of Higher Education analysis of NationalScience Foundation data.

But New England’s share of all R&D expenditures by U.S. universities slid from over 10 percent in 1983 to 7.9percent in 1999. Had New England maintained the 10 percent share of total university research and developmentexpenditures it had in the 1980s, more than $1 billion in additional R&D funds would have flowed into the six-state region in the past three years.

Change in Research and Development Expenditures at New England’s Top 25 Research Institutions, 1990-1999

* Does not include R&D expenditures at university-administered, federally funded research and development center.

** For 1990, the NSF reported a combined R&D expenditure of $101,812,000 for University of Massachusetts campuses

at Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth and Worcester.

*** Imputed by NSF.

Source: New England Board of Higher Education analysis of National Science Foundation data.

U.S. Percentage Change RANK INSTITUTION 1990 1999 1990-1999

9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology * $311,767,000 $420,306,000 35%

18 Harvard University 220,812,000 326,193,000 48%

27 Yale University 180,706,000 274,050,000 52%

70 Boston University 73,651,000 141,102,000 92%

74 University of Connecticut 117,932,000 134,986,000 14%

91 Tufts University 47,009,000 101,728,000 116%

100 University of Massachusetts Amherst ** 86,576,000 **

103 University of Massachusetts Worcester ** 83,040,000 **

109 Brown University 46,763,000 76,330,000 63%

112 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 71,747,000 71,722,000 0%

113 Dartmouth College 43,737,000 69,522,000 59%

117 University of Vermont 45,162,000 64,049,000 42%

124 University of New Hampshire 25,994,000 57,613,000 122%

131 Brandeis University 30,881,000 48,305,000 56%

136 University of Rhode Island 35,846,000 44,452,000 24%

140 University of Maine 23,605,000 41,452,000 76%

158 Northeastern University 14,347,000 30,209,000 111%

186 Boston College 8,052,000 21,726,000 170%

195 University of Massachusetts Lowell 11,291,000 19,413,000 72%

229 University of Massachusetts Boston ** 11,132,000 **

242 Worcester Polytechnic Institute 4,683,000 9,618,000 105%

271 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth ** 5,820,000 **

276 Wesleyan University 4,021,000 5,373,000 34%

282 Radcliffe College 0 4,948,000 0%

283 Wellesley College*** 1,692,000 4,943,000 192%

Total of top 25 New England institutions $1,319,698,000 $2,154,608,000 63%

All U.S. institutions $16,285,322,000 $27,489,061,000 69%

Data

File

:

Selling Knowledge?R&D Soothsayers and H igh Pr iests of

Ventu re Capital A re i n the Temple of the Academy

ALAN ROBERT EARLS

New England colleges and universities have long led the United States in research anddevelopment (R&D) funding, especially from federal agencies such as the NationalScience Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Pentagon,

but also from industry. The region’s university labs spent $2 billion on research in 1999—that’s$160 for every New England man, woman and child, compared with national per-capita spendingof $102. New England university research is big business. And it’s begun to sound like one,immersed as it is in activities such as technology licensing and commercialization, spinning offand incubating new business, and even high-risk venture capital investing.


Research and Development Expenditures at New England’s Top 25 Research Institutions by Field: 1999

U.S.RANK INSTITUTION ALL FIELDS ENGINEERING GEOSCIENCES LIFE SCIENCES

9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology $420,306,000 $153,789,000 $23,494,000 $66,924,000

18 Harvard University 326,193,000 4,960,000 14,089,000 221,419,000

27 Yale University 274,050,000 6,763,000 1,967,000 236,121,000

70 Boston University 141,102,000 16,110,000 3,775,000 94,478,000

74 University of Connecticut 134,986,000 23,793,000 7,486,000 81,970,000

91 Tufts University 101,728,000 7,346,000 1,155,000 81,075,000

100 University of Massachusetts Amherst 86,576,000 15,146,000 7,587,000 26,596,000

103 University of Massachusetts Worcester 83,040,000 0 0 83,040,000

109 Brown University 76,330,000 9,529,000 5,535,000 34,242,000

112 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 71,722,000 12,999,000 58,723,000 0

113 Dartmouth College 69,522,000 7,365,000 727,000 53,543,000

117 University of Vermont 64,049,000 1,444,000 354,000 56,013,000

124 University of New Hampshire 57,613,000 8,207,000 27,107,000 12,765,000

131 Brandeis University 48,305,000 0 0 20,127,000

136 University of Rhode Island 44,452,000 3,426,000 22,602,000 9,095,000

140 University of Maine 41,452,000 5,725,000 11,974,000 16,742,000

158 Northeastern University 30,209,000 13,118,000 0 6,183,000

186 Boston College 21,726,000 0 547,000 2,138,000

195 University of Massachusetts Lowell 19,413,000 7,854,000 2,061,000 1,384,000

229 University of Massachusetts Boston 11,132,000 88,000 780,000 2,422,000

242 Worcester Polytechnic Institute 9,618,000 7,463,000 0 320,000

271 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 5,820,000 1,636,000 1,288,000 1,085,000

276 Wesleyan University 5,373,000 0 228,000 2,140,000

282 Radcliffe College 4,948,000 346,000 250,000 1,790,000

283 Wellesley College * 4,943,000 0 0 2,696,000

Total of these top 25 institutions $2,154,608,000 $307,107,000 $191,729,000 $1,114,308,000

These activities often support core institutionalactivities and surely benefit communities by creatingnew industries or applying academic expertise to realproblems. But they also represent a major shift inresources and focus from a generation ago. And whilethe commercialization of knowledge has profound eth-

ical and financial implications, the shift has generatedlittle public attention. (The spotlight is approaching,however. As CONNECTION went to press, a report onindustry-university research collaboration by thenational Business Higher Education Forum had raiseda storm of protest from academics and others who

*Imputed by NSF. Source: New England Board of Higher Education analysis of National Science Foundation data.

Data

File

:


MATH AND PHYSICAL SOCIAL OTHERCOMPUTER SCIENCES SCIENCES PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCES SCIENCES

$39,199,000 $92,189,000 $1,080,000 $8,908,000 $34,723,000

3,060,000 30,424,000 4,548,000 33,073,000 14,620,000

4,765,000 18,596,000 3,625,000 2,213,000 0

3,245,000 11,945,000 2,465,000 1,868,000 7,216,000

1,427,000 4,671,000 5,488,000 6,409,000 3,742,000

1,526,000 3,843,000 2,747,000 4,036,000 0

12,048,000 18,041,000 4,071,000 1,046,000 2,041,000

0 0 0 0 0

12,037,000 8,027,000 2,236,000 4,724,000 0

0 0 0 0 0

2,289,000 3,149,000 1,216,000 772,000 461,000

1,159,000 1,148,000 754,000 109,000 3,068,000

625,000 2,740,000 1,206,000 4,629,000 334,000

11,324,000 3,800,000 1,372,000 21,682,000 0

152,000 828,000 4,365,000 358,000 3,626,000

328,000 4,321,000 417,000 1,945,000 0

1,887,000 6,722,000 1,368,000 931,000 0

9,700,000 6,377,000 327,000 2,637,000 0

641,000 5,464,000 813,000 637,000 559,000

109,000 377,000 439,000 6,776,000 141,000

1,033,000 800,000 0 2,000 0

1,057,000 628,000 20,000 106,000 0

86,000 1,883,000 842,000 194,000 0

227,000 1,491,000 206,000 580,000 58,000

225,000 972,000 0 1,050,000 0

$98,149,000 $228,436,000 $39,605,000 $104,685,000 $70,589,000

claimed the report glossed over the dangers of con-flicts of interest.)

While several influences have encouraged the corpo-ratization of academic research, the great empoweringevent seems to have been the 1980 passage of the Bayh-Dole Act. The legislation created a uniform patent policyamong federal agencies that fund research and enabledsmall businesses and nonprofit organizations to retaintitle to inventions made under such federally funded programs. Since the act’s passage, college and universitypatenting has trended upward steadily as have fees generated by licensing technology. In 1998, licensing rev-enues to colleges and universities reached $565 million onproducts with estimated sales of $28 billion, accordingto Association of University Technology Managers data.

In a more direct indicator of Bayh-Dole’s impact,patents granted to academic institutions shot from abare 1 percent of all patents granted from 1969 to 1984to 5 percent by the late 1990s.

Colleges say the increased licensing and patentingactivity reflects a duty to disseminate ideas to col-leagues and the public. “That involves traditional pub-lishing, partnering so that companies can carry newideas forward, and generally getting a public benefit forthings that have already been sponsored through us byagencies such as NSF and NIH,” says Bill Jackson, direc-tor of the Brown University Research Foundation.

Licensing is also more lucrative than simply publishing,but Jackson says the current $2 million in yearly licens-ing fees generated by Brown is a small contribution tooverall institutional expenses.

William F. Durgin, associate provost for academicaffairs at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, notes that sci-ence and technology educators feel a need to enhancerevenue to pay for increasingly expensive laboratories,equipment and personnel. “Each student costs us about$35,000 a year, while our after-financial-aid tuition takeis only about $20,000,” he explains. Still, Durgin saysWPI’s patenting and licensing activity does little morethan break even, helping to defray some operating costswhile ensuring that faculty, student, and institutionalintellectual property rights are protected.

Region’s leadershipNew England’s leadership in R&D began to evaporate inthe mid-1980s, as the region’s share of all U.S. universityR&D slipped from over 10 percent in 1983 to just 7.9 per-cent in 1999, according to a New England Board of HigherEducation analysis of National Science Foundation data.In part, the shift may be attributable to the maturation ofother players nationally—though there has also been adetermined effort by federal grantmaking agencies tobroaden geographical research strength.

To maintain the flow of R&D dollars, New England

institutions have joined their brethren from across thecountry in expensive government lobbying. BU routinelyspends three-quarters of a million dollars annually, whileYale, Harvard and MIT spend about half that amount.But smaller institutions also found value in lobbying. Inrecent years, the likes of Assumption College,Massachusetts College of Law and most New Englandpublic universities spent tens of thousands of dollars ormore on lobbying.

Meanwhile, the Boston Globe and The Chronicle of

Higher Education are among media outlets that have crit-icized so-called pork-barrel research funds specially ear-marked by members of Congress to labs in their districts,rather than selected through peer-reviewed, research com-petition. The Chronicle reports that in fiscal 1999, “acade-mic pork” reached $797 million nationally. Massachusettsranked only 9th; New Hampshire, 24th; Rhode Island 31st;Vermont 41st; and Maine 48th among the states.

Venture capitalNew England higher education institutions are increas-ingly involved in venture capital. For example, SmithCollege recently invested $750,000 in Long RiverVentures LP, a fund that invests in early-stage e-com-merce companies in western Massachusetts. Or considerBoston University’s notorious direct investment inSeragen Inc., a biotechnology company developing recep-tor-targeted fusion proteins for cancer and dermatology.Over several years, BU poured some $85 million into thecompany before the Massachusetts attorney generalordered the university to stop.

Seragen eventually entered into a strategic alliance

with Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. in 1994 to devel-op the cancer drug Ontak. In 1997, Seragen sold its man-ufacturing and human-testing operations to BU, whichnamed the Hopkinton, Mass.-based unit MarathonPharmaceuticals LLC. Finally, in 1998, San Diego-basedLigand Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced its merger withSeragen. Most published reports regarding the Seragenventure conclude that BU fared poorly on its investment.In recent years, BU has initiated other venture-flavored initiatives including the Provost’s Innovation Fund whichprovides annual awards of $25,000 to faculty with ideasthat could become licensable technology.

IncubatorsFinally, though hardly an avenue for profit, “businessincubators” have also become a commonplace feature of many campuses. As hosts of student-run and externalprivate-sector startups, colleges have discovered a role aseconomic nurturers. Incubators usually include somecombination of low-rent space, shared support servicesand sometimes mentoring or technical help—all aimed atturning startups into sustainable businesses. Businessincubation has grown markedly in North America, from12 programs in 1980 to 600 today--many of them affiliatedwith college campuses. Recently, for example, MarlboroCollege began luring Internet startups to its TechnologyCenter in Brattleboro, Vt., with the promise of state-of-the-art facilities and Marlboro faculty expertise. AndSpringfield Technical Community College was recentlylauded by the U.S. Department of Commerce for itsSpringfield Enterprise Center incubator which is current-ly nurturing dozens of small businesses.


Patents Assigned to New EnglandUniversities, 1969-1999

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2,151

Harvard College, President and Fellows 327

Boston University 200

Yale University 200

Northeastern University 117

Brown University Research Foundation 83

Tufts University (or trustees or medical school) 73

University of Massachusetts 66

Brandeis University 58

Dartmouth College 55

University of Massachusetts Medical School (or Medical Center) 48

University of Massachusetts at Lowell (or former University of Lowell) 35

University of Vermont (or State Agricultural College) 33

University of Rhode Island 31

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 16

Worcester Polytechnic Institute 15

University of Maine System 13

University of Massachusetts at Amherst 10

Until the mid-1990s, itwas unheard of forcolleges and universi-

ties to stand side by side withmajor corporations in snaring30 or more patents a year. But by 1995, the University of California captured 213patents, ranking 41st among all patent recipients. In NewEngland, the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology earned104 patents, ranking 94thamong all recipients.

(Includes universities and related institutions with 10 or more patents.)

Data

File

:

A 1997 study by the University of Michigan, OhioUniversity and industry groups shows that these sup-port programs for entrepreneurial firms have impres-sive, measurable impacts on the companies they serveas well as on local economies.

“Business incubation programs treat entrepreneurialcompanies as important community and nationalresources, and they provide assistance that ensurescompany success. This study should convince communi-ties that if they don’t already have a business incubationprogram, they’ll want to start thinking about one,” saysDinah Adkins, executive director of the Ohio-basedNational Business Incubation Association.

Fred Andrews, executive director of the SpringfieldEnterprise Center, says at least 15 of New England’sapproximately 40 incubators are affiliated with collegecampuses. However, he warns, many commercial incuba-tors are little more than low-rent buildings with a fewshared facilities. Andrews says that in addition to helpingcommunities, incubators also can generally be self-sup-porting, perhaps even profitable within an academic set-ting. Most importantly, he says, incubators benefit theinstitutional community. “Ideally, an incubator can helpsupport people who are used to the academic culture toget acclimated to what is going on commercially.”

Not-so-sudden impactsWhat is the long-term impact of incubators, the new focuson patents and licensing, and more adventuresome invest-ment policies on the academy? New England institutionsare not alone in their pursuit of new ways of doing busi-ness. For instance, a recently launched project at theJohnson Graduate School of Management at CornellUniversity—the Big Red Venture Fund—was started a yearago by Park Leadership Fellows. It has successfully raisedcapital since that time, and is currently sponsoring a busi-ness idea competition to inspire young entrepreneurs, whomay ultimately benefit from the fund. Other campuses arealso bursting with new ideas and fresh initiatives.

In some cases the inspirations came from NewEngland. MIT’s long and successful history of flutteringaround the flame of industry—without getting burned—is a case in point. There, a wide range of programs suchas the half-century-old Industrial Liaison Program (ILP)encourage entrepreneurs and engage corporations in avariety of relationships. ILP officer Todd Glickman saysthe program gives large corporations a “window intoMIT.” A hefty membership fee gives companies access to

research opportunities and an opportunity to interactwith faculty, staff and students. “It is a source of revenuefor MIT that is separate from licensing and other activi-ties,” he adds.

So despite the risks, complexities and changed ways ofdoing business, many are ready to endorse the new world ofacademic technology commercialization. “It is definitely aculture change,” says Ward. “But it really is just a differentway to serve the public.” As an example, Ward says onceupon a time Maine’s agricultural programs would simplypublish their potato research and pass along new potatovarieties to anyone interested. Now, though, he says theywould be more likely to seek a way to use licensing strategi-cally—with the goal of benefiting local farmers first.

And what of less noble efforts to single out beneficiariesof research? The Clinton administration was concernedenough about the rising stakes in debates over ethics inresearch to propose sweeping new guidelines that wouldhave particularly affected those working in the medical area.

University of Vermont Research Administrator ReginaWhite, who is president of the National Council ofUniversity Research Administrators, says: “It is importantto recognize that even though the field has changed great-ly the principles of governance have remained the same,built around the autonomy of the principal investigator.”

Fundamentally, she notes, the culture of academic insti-tutions supports autonomy, openness, and responsibility.Thus, even when a research administrator is cast in awatchdog role there is little resistance to such oversightor critical examinations of methods. “I have never seenand cannot imagine a situation where an administratorwould be ignored or overruled for telling an institutionthat some activity was not appropriate,” she says.

“Research administrators are recognizing the chal-lenges posed by conflict of interest and conflict of com-mitment and we continually talk to principal investigatorsabout real or potential conflicts of interest—and even theappearance of conflicts of interest,” she adds.

“Yes, there are challenges in this new environment,”admits Jackson of Brown. “When we add money to theequation, we must be cognizant of potential conflictsof interest and we must have the right guidance andappropriate documentation,” says Jackson. But headds, “as we gain experience we learn more about howto do this effectively.”

Alan Robert Earls is a freelance writer and

frequent contributor to CONNECTION.



Yet these kinds of partnerships are particularly strong atthe nation’s land-grant and sea-grant institutions,where federal investment over the past century-and-a-half has generated innovative solutions to problems atthe local, state, regional and national levels.

Typically, this university research and resulting outreach unfolds in dedicated scientific settings that are removed from another of the university’s primary missions—the education of future problem-solvers. Yetthe implementation of scientific solutions to some of our most complex environmental and human problemsrequires colleges and universities to face the importantand challenging task of preparing undergraduate stu-dents to be expert problem-solvers, adept at addressingemerging issues and implementing programs that drawon a range of disciplines and technologies. Complex contemporary problems demand nothing less.

Traditional universities are well-equipped to educatestudents in classrooms about scientific problems thatare already understood and solved. They are less prepared to introduce students to the complexity and challenge of emerging scientific problems. This frontierof discovery and excitement exists in the university’s

research laboratories and in its outreach settings, but it rarely spills over into the classroom perhaps afew-hundred feet down the hall. The challenge is clear.If we are to prepare students with a full range of skillsand a passion for learning, we must expose them toboth worlds. In the American educational landscape,research universities have the capacity to offer aunique form of education by melding their researchand outreach missions with their teaching mandate.(In fact, these imperatives are echoed in two nationalreports on American research universities: the CarnegieCommission on Educating Undergraduates in theResearch University’s Reinventing Undergraduate

Education: A Blueprint for American’s Research

Universities of 1998, and the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities’The Engaged Institution of 1999.)

Shift to learningSince his arrival at the University of Rhode Island in 1991,President Robert Carothers has sought to shift the focus ofthe undergraduate experience from teaching to learning.He has initiated institutional self-examination to identifyURI’s engines of research excellence and encourage facultyand departments to weave student learning into thosefields. This has resulted in an effective approach to com-munity-based outreach and to student learning at URI.

One of URI’s successes in fostering active learninghas been in the area of marine and environmental sci-ence. Over the past five years, the URI Coastal FellowsProgram has provided capstone experiential learning formore than 265 students in various scientific disciplinesand attracted more than $1 million in outside funding to URI. The program infuses externally funded researchteams of faculty, staff and partners with the principlesof undergraduate experiential learning.

Coastal Fellows range from sophomores to seniors.They are formally assigned to work for at least eightmonths within a vertically integrated research or out-reach team. After learning about the dimension of a

Combining Research, Outreach

and Student LearningA New Model i n Rhode Island

DEBORAH GROSSMAN-GARBER, ARTHUR GOLD AND THOMAS HUSBAND

A merican research universities are renowned for applying cutting-edge science to theimprovement of the world’s health and environmental systems. Indeed, as a society, we have come to expect this type of intellectual leadership from our great universities.

Less appreciated is the robust opportunity for state and local governments to harness the intellectualpower of the academy to help solve community problems.

Technical expertise. Susan Baxter, a Coastal Fellow

with the URI Environmental Data Center, digitizing

maps for the National Park Service in 1999.

PHO

TO B

Y R

OM

A F

EREN

BAU

GH

.

particular research or management initiative, studentsbegin to work on an aspect of the team’s investigation,for which the student accepts primary responsibility.Fellows are supported in their work and learning byother members of their team, usually a mix of faculty,more senior research or outreach staff, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and senior undergraduate fellows. Research funding is obtained through competi-tive, peer-reviewed processes.

Most of the research teams are multigenerational,with the capacity to embrace and nurture studentsthroughout their education. These teams offer students arange of learning experiences and project-related sup-port. Among the most valuable benefits to students isthe informal learning that takes place in the teams—thenetworking and casual reflection, but also the conversa-tions that help them acquire the language of their disci-pline and, thus, a professional voice. At the conclusion of their fellowship, students present their findings to anassembly of fellows, mentors, other university facultyand staff, partners from external agencies and the uni-versity’s provost and president. Coastal Fellows receive a summer stipend and academic credit for their work.

This model provides a powerful forum for undergrad-uate learning, particularly when set in the context ofapplied community problem-solving. As a junior, BenGaluardi worked with state officials and coastal zonemanagers at the URI Coastal Resources Center toresearch and draft natural hazard mitigation strategiesfor Rhode Island. This plan was presented to the state

and later published. Galuardi says the fellowship allowedhim “to give something to the community.”

In the early 1990s, the City of Warwick, R.I., began a substantial initiative to improve its water quality andrestore the shellfishing industry of Greenwich Bay —a central feature of the city’s economy and heritage. In response to discussions between Warwick PlannerJonathan Edwards and URI’s Peter August, an expert inthe development of computerized mapping from remote-ly sensed data, Warwick funded three Coastal Fellows todevelop a digital, high-resolution spatial database of thecoastal lands in the town. The Coastal Fellows, in con-junction with August’s staff at the URI EnvironmentalData Center, played a key role in helping the city priori-tize its investments in septic and sewer infrastructure toimprove water quality.

Another longstanding Coastal Fellow project has united a local community in its efforts to preserve openspace for future generations. Coastal Fellows have beenselected by the Town of Richmond to work in conjunc-tion with Stephen Swallow, a renowned URI researcherin the field of survey-based valuation methods, andRichmond Town Planner Joe Lombardo to assess thecommitment of the community to fund preservation ofopen-space initiatives. Over a four-year period, the townhas funded three undergraduate Coastal Fellows toapply the results from a pubic preference economicmodel to identify and prioritize land parcels for conser-vation. These results provide key information to thetown’s Rural Preservation Land Trust and have beeninstrumental in helping balance economic growth while preserving the rural character of the community.Moreover, town staffing is limited, and the work wouldn’thave been done if not for the Coastal Fellows.

The Coastal Fellows Program has generated a burstof enthusiasm on campus and contributed to a markedattitudinal change toward undergraduate educationamong research faculty and staff at URI. In particular,the program has bridged the gulf that separated gradu-ate faculty, outreach educators and research professorsfrom undergraduate learning. Many local communitiesand state and federal agencies have recognized the powerof this connection to access nationally renowned researchand outreach programs at URI to meet their own localneeds. They regularly utilize Coastal Fellows, supervisedand mentored by a URI faculty or staff member, to pursueindependent projects on the agency’s behalf.


THE PROGRAM HAS BRIDGED THE

GULF THAT SEPARATED GRADUATE

FACULTY, OUTREACH EDUCATORS

AND RESEARCH PROFESSORS

FROM UNDERGRADUATE LEARNING.

Spreading knowledge. Coastal Fellow Linda Green training

a volunteer to monitor the ponds of Rhode Island for water

clarity and nutrients.

PHO

TO B

Y R

OM

A F

EREN

BAU

GH

.

Experiential modelThe Coastal Fellows model is clearly a powerful one for faculty and students, researchers and communitiesalike—potent enough to inspire the URI Department ofNatural Resources Science to implement a paradigm shiftin educating all its majors. The new curriculum encour-ages students to pursue fully one-half of the work in theirmajor through hands-on, experiential opportunities suchas the Coastal Fellows Program. This represents a radical-ly different approach to education and a stark departurefrom other models on campus.

The new curriculum blends traditional classroominstruction and hands-on experiential learning with stu-dent reflection and synthesis to solve real-world prob-lems such as those addressed in university research andoutreach settings. The model curriculum embracesand extends the concept of vertically oriented learningteams, fostered by the Coastal Fellows Program. It provides a variety of learning opportunities throughout

a student’s time at URI—from the first semester of fresh-man year through the senior year. These opportunitiesinclude internships, Coastal Fellowships, cooperativeeducation placements, research apprenticeships at different academic levels, teaching practica with facul-ty, student-generated research and senior theses. Other hallmarks of the curriculum are peer teaching and mentoring and inquiry-based approaches to learning.

This type of radical revision requires faculty supervision to ensure academic legitimacy. TheNatural Resources Science Department has structureda system that will establish expected learning out-comes for each student and set criteria and rubrics formeasuring student achievement. In the near future, adynamic portfolio system—in conjunction with carefuladvising and mentoring—will require students todemonstrate competency and achievement of educa-tional goals. A senior capstone course asks students todemonstrate their capacity to synthesize knowledge byaddressing a real-world problem. Seniors present theirbest research or outreach effort to a forum of facultyand peers.

The Natural Resources Science curriculum isattracting large numbers of students, and four otherdepartments are moving to institute a similar curricu-lum. Why is this approach gaining momentum? Forfaculty, the chief reason is the opportunity to spendmore time working and teaching within the context oftheir research. University administrators see an oppor-tunity to reduce seat time and thus costs. Graduatestudents learn valuable teaching and mentoring skills.Undergraduates—the primary beneficiaries—gain sub-stantive experience in their field, along with close con-nections to faculty, staff and other students in teamsettings. Communities tap a powerful resource forsolving local problems. Ultimately, this new paradigmoffers a venture of discovery in which everybody wins.

Deborah Grossman-Garber is director of student

programs and academic outreach at the University of

Rhode Island’s College of the Environment and Life

Sciences and coordinator of the Partnership for the

Coastal Environment. Arthur Gold is professor of

Natural Resources Science at URI. Thomas Husband is

chair and professor of Natural Resources Science at URI.


UNDERGRADUATES GAIN SUBSTANTIVE

EXPERIENCE IN THEIR FIELD, ALONG WITH CLOSE CONNECTIONS

TO FACULTY, STAFF AND OTHER

STUDENTS IN TEAM SETTINGS.

At work. Coastal Fellows in the field, recording water table

depth and studying movement of nitrogen through the

watershed.

PHO

TO B

Y R

OM

A F

EREN

BAU

GH

.


Research for the CommunityBates Students Lear n as they Work Mag ic

for Lew i ston and Aubu r n

DONALD W. HARWARD

W hen a fire breaks out in the twin cities of Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, the firefighterresponse time is just a bit quicker these days, thanks to student research at BatesCollege. When the alarm sounds, firefighters click on a computer map that tells them

the size of the burning structure, the quickest route to the fire, the closest hydrant and whether itcan provide enough water.

Before his graduation in 1999, Bates geology studentPeter Beeson researched and developed a GeographicalInformation System (GIS) for firefighters in the twocities. The system also is used to gauge environmentalimpact of road developments, and for other geographi-cal purposes such as optimum routes for sewerage.Municipal officials say that Beeson’s research hassaved them nearly $200,000.

For Beeson, it was a heady experience: “I waslearning too much to realize that I was volunteering a lot of time,” Beeson said in an interview for the college magazine. “When I offered a suggestion, peoplewould listen and act on what I had to say. It’s gratifying,especially for a young student who doesn’t know thevalue of what he knows.”

This experience illustrates the mutual advantagesthat research projects provide colleges and their com-munities—in this case, Bates College and its commu-nity development partner, an initiative of 36 local business, civic and institutional leaders in Lewistonand Auburn called LA Excels.

Recently, Bates and LA Excels were awarded an$80,000 grant from the national Consortium for theAdvancement of Private Higher Education’s “EngagingCommunities and Campuses” program. Over the nexttwo years, the grant will fund 10 summer CommunityResearch Fellowships. These fellowships will takequalified students into Lewiston and Auburn to under-take research projects identified by the community asessential building blocks of ambitious communitydevelopment efforts. The research fellows then preparereports that are put to immediate use by communitygroups as they plan, finance, and realize communityimprovement projects.

LA Excels insists that the process be rooted in thecommunity and that citizen involvement characterizeany meaningful partnership. The LA Excels agenda isbased on two years of community conventions bringinghundreds of residents to planning sessions with the col-lege and LA Excels leadership. The agenda focuses on:

• Strengthening local educational aspirations with special focus on children from birth through age 5.

• Enriching local arts and culture by developing a community arts learning center, a performing arts center and possibly a cultural heritage museum.

• Creating stronger neighborhoods and business districts, initially through development of a series of neighborhood housing projects.

• Creating a greenways system of bicycle and walkingtrails linking some of the finest amenities of bothcities: the Androscoggin River, Lake Auburn and a bird sanctuary in Lewiston.

The Bates Community Research Program is connected to these objectives. Each CommunityResearch Fellow is assigned a community adviser anda Bates College adviser. Fellows work either at Bates

or in community offices on their research, and funds are available for travel and other expenses.

Art history and political science major ApostoliaHantzara will spend this summer investigating models ofsuccessful community arts centers in college communitiessimilar to Lewiston and Auburn. She plans to concentrateher search on how an arts center can serve as an excitinggathering spot for children, teens, adults and college stu-dents. Hantzara says she suspects that bringing togethersuch a diverse group of citizens in the name of creativepursuits can invigorate and unify a community.

The fellows, selected through essay applications,have strong academic and research skills. They areindependent thinkers who can work well on their own,but who also are prepared to interact with profession-als in community agencies. They are eager to put theirliberal arts training to the test in the real world. Theyare curious about careers in community development,arts administration, land-use planning and city plan-ning. And they recognize the responsibility implicit inthe fact that a research project that they complete thissummer is likely to have a direct impact on Lewiston-


Auburn’s community improvement goals in housing,the arts or greenways development.

The community research fellowships provide $3,500stipends to students who work eight to 10 weeks full-time in the summer on one of the community-designedresearch projects. Each project is linked to specific com-munity development goals, and each research reportcompleted by a fellow contributes essential informationfor moving Lewiston and Auburn toward a better future.

Bates students last year provided 59,381 hours of service—mostly connected to academic service-learningprojects—to 139 nonprofit groups and government agen-cies, according to a college survey. And Bates has inte-grated forms of service into its curricula, includingcreating a center to coordinate and support service thatis rooted in academic experiences and expectations—enhancing the contexts for learning. Research is a natur-al next step in college interaction with its community.The applied research opportunities afforded through theCommunity Research Program further expand how ser-vice and undergraduate academic experience can beconnected by enabling students to put their academicwork into practice.

Moreover, Bates is able to enhance hands-on learningwhile addressing community needs. “It is based on thepremise that to prepare students for a lifetime of contribu-tions to society, colleges should enable students to connectwith the world beyond the campus while still in school,”says LA Excels Executive Director Rebecca Conrad.

Many private colleges already provide access toresources and expertise that reaches beyond the com-munity; they bring visibility that reinforces community

aspiration; and they contribute committed leadershipand energy from students, staff and alumni.

For colleges and communities now engaged as civicentrepreneurs, forming a community-wide strategic partnership can lead to strengthening structures forchange, growth and development. For residents ofLewiston and Auburn, the hometown private college’scommitment to its “place” and to a genuine community-based partnership, there is already an important result: a palpable attitudinal change, a confidence in the futureand an expectation for success.

Donald W. Harward is president of Bates College

and chair of LA Excels.

CONNECTION is America’s only regional journal on higher education andeconomic development. Each quarter, CONNECTION offers expert analysisand hard-hitting commentaries on topics such as workforce development,science policy, education funding, emerging industries and interstateregionalism.

The special annual directory issue of CONNECTION

called FACTS provides comprehensive information onNew England’s 280-plus degree-granting institutions,as well as in-depth state, regional and national analysis of higher education data.

Subscribe to CONNECTION now and enjoy more than 25% off the cover price.

Higher Education ... Economic Development ...

Quality of Life ... Get the CONNECTION?

For more information, contact: CONNECTION, New England Board of Higher Education, 45 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111.

Phone: 617.357.9620 • Email: [email protected] • www.nebhe.org.

Serving. Peter Beeson and other Bates students analyzed the

environmental impact of a proposed road near a local bog in

Lewiston, Maine. The city manager praised the students for an

“absolutely stupendous job.”


The End of Economic Exuberance

New Eng land’s Econom ic Outlook

ROSS GITTELL

This represents not the previouslyanticipated soft landing, but rather asignificant slowdown. (See Figure 1.)The sharp decline in growth makes theNew England economy feel like it is inrecession, but it is not. It is like cruis-ing at 80 miles an hour on the highwayand then getting behind a tractor andslowing down to 30 miles an hour. Theend-of-the-century era of economicexuberance in New England is over.

New England’s economy, however,does not appear to be headed toward

the kind of deep or prolonged recessionit experienced in the late 1980s andearly 1990s. The region’s employmentbase is more diversified than it wasthen, both within high technology andacross different sectors. There has notbeen the same degree of real estatespeculation, and the banking communi-ty is stronger. Plus, the labor marketremains tight with slim prospects of areturn to high levels of unemployment.The current outlook is for continuedgrowth with no recession.

In fact, the outlook is for the region-al economy to begin to improve in thesecond half of 2001. Overall growth forthe five-year forecast period is expect-ed to be below the rates of the last fiveyears, but higher than the growth ratesof the early 1990s, and close to the U.S.average. (See Figure 2.)

To be sure, the economic outlook forNew England changes if the nationaleconomy goes into recession. There isno consensus about the likelihood of aU.S. recession. But if one were to occur,New England would suffer a drop inannualized growth from the baselinerates presented in Figures 1 and 2. Thedrop would be on the order of half a per-cent a year for GSP—from 3 to 2.5 per-cent a year in GSP—and from 1 to 0.8 percent a year in total employment.

Under a recession scenario, NewEngland would perform slightly belowthe U.S. average. The main elements ofa national recession would include con-tinued weaknesses in high technologyand equity values. Both of these wouldhave a disproportionately negativeeffect on New England because of theregion’s relatively high dependence onhigh-technology and financial serviceindustries and relatively high levels ofpersonal income, wealth and invest-ment in equity markets.

More “normal” growthOverall growth in GSP from 2000 to2005 in New England is expected toaverage 3 percent per year. This is wellbelow the region’s annual growth rateof 5.8 percent over the previous fiveyears, but significantly above the 1.2percent annual growth rate the regionexperienced as it emerged from the recession of a decade ago. New England’sgrowth in GSP is expected to be thesame as the U.S. average, though RhodeIsland and Maine are expected to growat rates below the U.S. average.

L ike the nation as a whole, New England is in the midst of a significant economic slowdown. Growth rates across a range ofeconomic indicators have dropped from very high levels in

2000 to much lower rates similar to those last experienced in the early1990s. On an annual basis, real growth in gross state product (GSP)will have declined from 7.8 percent in 2000 to 2.2 percent in 2001,based on currently projected year-end totals, while employmentgrowth will have dropped from 2.3 percent to 0.9 percent.

-1%U.S.N.E.

90-95N.E. 95-00

Gross State Product Employment

N.E. Conn. Mass. Maine N.H. R.I. Vt.

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

An

nu

ali

zed

Gro

wth

Rate

s

0%'95 '96

N.E. Gross State ProductU.S. Total Employment N.E. Total EmploymentU.S. Gross Domestic Product

'97 '98 '99 '00 '01 '02 '03 '04 '05

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

8%

An

nu

al

Gro

wth

Rate

s

Figure 1: New England Real Gross State Product and Employment: 1995-2005

Figure 2: New England GSP and Employment Growth, History and Forecast: 2000-2005


Total employment growth in NewEngland is expected to average slight-ly above 1 percent per year from 2000to 2005. This is well below theregion’s 2.1 growth rate over the pre-vious five years and below the expect-ed U.S. average, but significantlyabove the negative growth experi-enced in the region coming out of thelast recession.

Employment growth below the U.S. average is not surprising or particularly disconcerting given NewEngland’s history of slow population,labor force and employment growth.Below-average growth in employmentoccurred even during most of theboom years of the last decade. NewHampshire and Vermont are expectedto continue to experience the strongestemployment growth in the region withboth states growing faster than theU.S. average. Maine and Rhode Islandwill have slower employment growth.

Significant variation in growth isanticipated across major industry sec-tors. Manufacturing in New England isexpected to be stronger than it was inthe last decade. The relatively positiveoutlook reflects the potential in-migration of high-technology manufacturing firms escaping energyuncertainties in California and seekingproximity to agglomerations of similartypes of firms, to skilled labor and toNew England’s sophisticated researchand development capabilities.

Silicon Valley-based companies suchas Cisco and Sun Microsystems movedsome of their manufacturing and R&Doperations to New England even beforethe California energy crisis as theysought a “bicoastal” presence withaccess to top quality labor. The GoldenState’s energy market problems areexpected to extend New England’s at-tractiveness to Silicon Valley companies.

Overall growth in New England’smanufacturing employment is expect-ed to be slightly positive, comparedwith a 0.3 percent decline nationallyand the 0.7 percent decline experi-enced in New England during the pre-vious five years. Massachusetts and

Vermont are expected to have thestrongest manufacturing sectors, duelargely to anticipated growth in high-technology manufacturing at compa-nies such as IBM in Vermont. Maine isexpected to see the weakest growthdue to a continuing decline in tradi-tional manufacturing industries suchas paper and pulp products andleather goods.

In contrast to manufacturing, NewEngland’s services sector is expectedto be relatively weak compared to theU.S. average and the previous fiveyears in the region. Employmentgrowth in New England services firmshas dropped from 3.5 percent in 2000to an anticipated 1.4 percent in 2001.

The drop in employment growth inbusiness services is expected to beeven more pronounced than in ser-vices overall, plunging from 8.5 per-cent to 2.8 percent. This reflectsconsolidation and layoffs at softwaredevelopment and services companiessuch as Kana Communications, theCalifornia firm which a year agomerged with Manchester, N.H.-basedSilknet, and Bottomline Technologies,the Portsmouth, N.H.-based maker ofcheck-writing software, which eachlaid off approximately 20 percent oftheir workforces in the past sixmonths. It also reflects a drop ingrowth rates in temp services employ-ment, which had increased signifi-cantly during the late 1990s.

The expected average annualgrowth in New England service indus-try employment for the next five yearsis just 1.7 percent—significantlybelow the 3.3 percent average over theprevious five years and projectednational average growth of 2.3 percent.

Economic fundamentals New England’s economic fundamentalswill continue to include: relatively highlevels of educational attainment, highconcentration of employment in hightechnology and other high value-addedindustries (such as advanced businessand professional services), high per-capita income, slow population growth,and unemployment rates well below

the U.S. average. These economic char-acteristics are highly interrelated.

New England’s national leadership ineducational attainment contributes toits high per-capita income. New Englandranks first among all the U.S. censusregions in percentage of adults with afour-year college degree or higher; near-ly 30 percent of New England adultshold bachelor’s degrees or more, com-pared with less than 25 percent nation-ally. The region also ranks first in thepercentage of employment in high-tech-nology industries—6.4 percent, com-pared with a U.S. average of 4.6 percent.Concentration of employment in high-technology industries marked by high-value-added-per-worker has contributedto personal income growth. Indeed, thefour highest ranking states in terms ofpercentage of total employment in hightechnology industries, according to theAmerican Electronics Association, areamong the top five ranking states in theUnited States in personal incomegrowth in 2000. These include two New England states: Massachusetts andNew Hampshire. Three New Englandstates—Connecticut, Massachusettsand New Hampshire—rank in the topsix nationally in per-capita income.

Slow population and labor forcegrowth in the region have contributed tolow unemployment rates persisting evenin the current environment of layoffsand increases in unemployment claimsacross New England. The combinationof slow population growth, below aver-age labor force growth and low unem-ployment is expected to continue.

In short, the outlook is for a lessexuberant, but still strong NewEngland economy. Higher educationand the development of skilled workerswill continue to be critical factors—perhaps the critical factors—in theregion’s economic future.

Ross Gittell is an associate

professor at the University of New

Hampshire’s Whittemore School of

Business and Economics and vice

president of the New England

Economic Project.

Editor’s Note: Twice a year, the New England Economic Project (NEEP), a nonprofit association of economists from NewEngland banks, higher education institutions and other organizations, presents its economic “outlook” for each of the six NewEngland states and the region. Recently, NEEP and the New England Board of Higher Education agreed to publish periodicreports on the regional economy in CONNECTION. For more information on NEEP, visit: http://www.neepecon.org/what.is.neep.htm


The new AACC mission statementboldly asserts that the community col-lege is the premier institution for life-long learning, transfer, vocational andremedial programs.

Pierce, like many others, sees criti-cal challenges for these distinctlyAmerican institutions. Among them:equity, credentialing mixed with certifi-cation of skills and competencies, newformats (e.g. applied baccalaureate,dual enrollment, e-learning, etc.), workforce training and economic development. His observations couldn’tbe more relevant to New England.

The region’s community collegeshave provided a vital entry point forunderprepared students and under-served populations since the G.I. Bill of Rights breached economic andsocial barriers to educational opportu-nity after World War II. New HampshireCommunity Technical College-Manchester/Stratham traces its rootsto 1945, and my father taught atHolyoke Junior College, now HolyokeCommunity College, as early as 1946.But New England’s community col-leges truly blossomed in the decades of

the 1960s and the 1970s. Between 1960and 1973, New England experienced anexplosion in 37 new two-year colleges,including 15 in Massachusetts, 14 inConnecticut, and the new CommunityColleges of Rhode Island andCommunity College of Vermont. (To be sure, private two-year collegeshave a long history of service to theregion. Casco Bay College traces itsbeginnings to 1863; Dean College to1865; Champlain College to 1878;McIntosh College to 1896; PostCollege to 1890; and Fisher Collegeto 1903.)

New populationsAs the face of New England changes, it is imperative that everyone whoaspires to a better life through educa-tion has access to college. Tuition andfees have been on a troubling trend,and community colleges particularlymust ensure that their costs do notimpose limitations on access.

The 2000 census indicates that thetotal population of southeasternMassachusetts has risen to just under600,000. Earlier census data reveal that

only 66 percent of the area’s populationhad completed high school, comparedwith 80 percent statewide. Moreover,while 27 percent of Massachusetts resi-dents age 25 and older hold bachelor’sdegrees or higher, the figure in south-eastern Massachusetts is 16 percent.The area’s underachievement in educa-tion is echoed in its grim economic profile. In 1999, unemployment rates in many southeastern Massachusettscommunities exceeded the state aver-age of 3.2 percent and even the nationalaverage of 4.2 percent. (The few excep-tions included Plainville, NorthAttleboro, Mansfield, Norton andMattapoisett.) Per-capita income in Fall River and New Bedford, meanwhile,is 29 percent below the state average.

Former Miami-Dade CommunityCollege President Robert McCabe, now a senior fellow at the League forInnovation in the Community College,noted in his landmark 2000 study titledNo One to Waste: “Immigrants andHispanics will account for most of thepopulation growth in the next 50 years.These populations are disproportion-ately underprepared for 21st century

During recent inaugural activities at Bristol Community College (BCC), David Pierce, presidentemeritus of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), reviewed the historyand unprecedented growth of two-year public colleges since Joliet Junior College of Illinois

opened with six students in 1901 as an experimental postgraduate high school program. Today, the com-munity college movement has grown to 1,132 institutions, educating 10.4 million students each year,including about 44 percent of all U.S. undergraduates.

MADE IN

FALL RIVERMADE IN

FALL RIVER

New FabricA Com mu n ity Col lege Spi ns

Par tnersh ips i n Southeaster n

Massachu setts

JOHN J. SBREGA


employment, presenting a dauntingtask for education.” This national situation mirrors demographic trendsin southeastern Massachusetts. For theperiod 1990 to 2010, Fall River’s minor-ity population is projected to grow by52 percent, while New Bedford’s willgrow by 63 percent.

New modelsAt the same time, employers areincreasingly impatient with old-fash-ioned, time-specific modes of instruc-tion. Traditional 15-week semestersmay have made sense in less techno-logical times and for certain segmentsof the population. But this format nowhas become a hindrance to workforce development.

We must be prepared not only togrant credit-bearing credentials (e.g.degrees, certificates, courses, letters of recognition) but also to certify spe-cific skills, competencies and abilities(some of which are acquired throughnon-credit instruction). Moreover,abbreviated, concentrated formats anddistance learning offerings seem ideallysuited to meeting employer needswithout sacrificing quality or erodingacademic standards. Nearly all commu-nity colleges have created training cen-ters that specialize in developingcourse formats tailored to individualcompanies’ needs. The center at theCommunity College of Rhode Island,for example, has conducted on-sitetraining at Stanley-Bostitch, while thecenter at BCC has fostered a close rela-tionship with Texas Instruments.

Some community colleges offer“applied baccalaureate” degrees inoccupational/technical fields. Thedegrees, requiring about 120 semestercredits, emphasize work skills andaddress employers’ needs for expand-ed, post-associate instruction thatadopts a more practical , hands-onapproach than the traditional bache-lor’s degree in technical fields.Depending on its scope, the degree canbe either a bachelor of applied scienceor a bachelor of applied technology.Many community colleges envisionoffering applied baccalaureate degreesas an extension of their existing associ-ate in applied science degrees;Springfield Technical Community

College, for one, is already developing aproposal to offer this degree. My prefer-ence would be to integrate these newdegrees within the framework of ourexisting partnerships with bachelor’sdegree-granting institutions. In otherwords, community colleges could con-tinue their highly successful traditionalpattern of offering freshman andsophomore courses, while partner four-year institutions would provide theupper-level courses culminating in theapplied baccalaureate degree. Thus,only in those (rare?) cases when a bac-calaureate-granting institution choosesnot to respond to a demonstrated needwould a community college acceptresponsibility for offering the appliedbaccalaureate. The state of Arizonahas drawn up elaborate procedures tofollow this protocol which would abideby the spirit of long-established prac-tice within the world of higher educa-tion and would disrupt only minimallyexisting areas of responsibility.

Community colleges also bear theresponsibility to serve currentlyemployed and dislocated workers whoare looking to change careers. In onenotable example, MiddlesexCommunity College of Massachusettsoffered special courses to workersupon the unfortunate closing of boththe Prince Spaghetti factory and thecity of Lowell’s Computer LearningCenter. Related to this emphasis onlife-long learning is the fact that morethan 20 percent of current communitycollege students already hold at least abachelor’s degree—and a surprisingnumber hold doctorates.

Emphasis on workMany years ago, my preparation for thedreaded “college admissions interview”incorporated a firm decision never tolink my quest for knowledge as anundergraduate with an impure desire toobtain employment. How crass! Now,students throughout higher educationdemand relevance and they want to beequipped to enter the workforce. Allhigher education institutions, includinghighly specialized graduate schools,face this challenge. But the communitycollege mission is particularly suited topreparing people for work that is tech-nologically based, market-responsive

and globally sensitive.Indeed, community colleges prepare

the workforce of the future, the presentand the past. The future refers to ourcurrent traditional-age students (ages18-20) who we prepare to become pro-ductive members of the workforce fordecades to come. We also train the pre-sent workforce by making sure thatthey update their skills to keep pacewith our fast-changing environment.BCC, for example, assisted People Inc.in obtaining a grant from theWorkforce Training Fund, and as aresult, we now offer them computerapplications training. In addition, wework with a workforce of “the past”—primarily dislocated workers whosecareer fields have been eclipsed orwhose individual skills have lapsed, torefurbish those skills or train them fornew careers.

BCC earned national recognitionthrough a grant from the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency toprepare unemployed or underemployedresidents of New Bedford to work inbrownfield sites; this 17-week programprepares students for jobs as ground-water technician aides, field samplingtechnician aides, lab assistants andlead or asbestos abatement workers.Another innovative program focuses onliteracy training through a “PerkinsCareer Access Center Liaison” whoalternates between Fall River and NewBedford.

New hallmarksHow will community colleges meet thechallenges before them? Partnerships,collaborations and regionalism are thehallmarks of the future. The variousdimensions of the education world—ele-mentary and secondary, community col-leges, bachelor’s degree-grantinginstitutions, graduate schools—mustform a seamless career (yes, “career”)path to ensure the expeditious flow ofstudents across the continuum.Educators must also form strong linkswith public and private entities—busi-nesses, chambers of commerce, govern-ment agencies, foundations—to marshalprecious resources in a common effort.

Elaborate networks already existinside the world of education.Articulation agreements with four-year


institutions ensure smooth transitionsfor community college students. Inaddition, across the country, communi-ty colleges have developed “Tech/Prep”partnerships with local high schools toencourage seamless pathways intohigher education and to reduce highschool dropout rates. In Massachusetts,community colleges are teaming withhigh schools to refine curriculumframeworks for MCAS and to providesupport for those who may not farewell on this high-stakes test.

One outstanding example of thepromising role community colleges canplay in fostering regionalism and eco-nomic development is in the field ofteacher education. Over the nextdecade, America faces a critical short-age of K-12 teachers, with some studiesprojecting more than 2 million vacan-cies. Working in partnership withschool superintendents, four-year col-leges and graduate schools, communitycolleges can help develop a seamlesspath of recruitment, teacher educationand job placement. Indeed, my conver-sations with superintendents in south-eastern Massachusetts and withBridgewater State College PresidentAdrian Tinsley and University ofMassachusetts Dartmouth ChancellorJean MacCormack uncovered fertile areas for developing these pathways.

These different types of higher educa-tion institutions—working with the U.S.Department of Education, the stateBoard of Higher Education and con-cerned legislators—should act in concertto guarantee scholarships and teachingpositions to secondary school studentswho earn bachelor’s degrees and agreeto a term of service in a predeterminedteaching position of their choice.

Portfolios and other assessmentinstruments could be used to formallyrecognize experience as a validmethod of learning. Free or reducedtuition, funded by the state, wouldenhance the recruitment of prospec-

tive teachers. And will we ever seethe reduction of bureaucratic hurdlesto certification?

In addition, community colleges coulduse their already extensive services inlifelong learning to help recruit profes-sionals in other fields to embark uponthis teaching pathway armed with appro-priate credentials from their prior experi-ence. Community colleges could readilyput into place similar arrangements forother critical fields including health careand information technology (IT).

Serving southeastern Mass.BCC is involved in two major projectsthat focus national attention on work-force development. In conjunction withthe American Association ofCommunity Colleges, Microsoft hascreated a $10 million grant initiativecalled Working Connections for com-munity colleges to develop IT programsthat respond to 21st century needs.These model IT programs integrate a“career ladder” structure which notonly prepares students for entry-levelpositions but also incorporatesadvanced training components forexperienced workers. The four primaryobjectives of the Working Connections

initiative are: business and industryoutreach, IT curriculum development,workforce development andfaculty/staff development. BCC is oneof just 63 community colleges in thecountry selected to participate.

Within this collaborative effort toclose the Digital Divide, BCC hascarved out a unique program called theBristol Information Technology Schoolor BITS. This fledgling program usesholistic and cohort models to prepareminority and low-income students forentry-level positions in IT. Studentsparticipate in career/academic interestassessment, mentoring by businesspartners, tutoring, and two college-levelcourses. Graduates can enter the BCCComputer Systems degree program and

earn certifications in Novell NetworkAdministration, A+, or Windows NTAdministration. In its first year, BITSequipped 20 economically disadvan-taged students with a free desktopcomputer. Students who complete theprogram are eligible to purchase thecomputer at a discounted price.

As one of about 250 U.S. partnerswith American College Testing Inc.(ACT), BCC is opening an ACT Centerthat will offer over 1,200 instructionalmodules in asynchronous, on-line for-mats. Instruction through the center(either on campus or through distancelearning) can incorporate full-blowncourses or specific training modules.This flexibility enables individuals toprogress on a self-paced, convenientschedule. Topics include computersand IT, small business operation, man-agerial/leadership, safety skills, adultliteracy, English as a second language,and personal/professional development.In the first 60 days of this year, morethan 15,300 visitors accessed the ACTCenter’s website, and this national net-working system holds great promise.

Last year, BCC received a five-year,$1.75 million federal Title III grant tostrengthen underprepared students. Inaddition, BCC is currently starting athree-year grant of over $800,000 fromthe National Science Foundation todevelop educational pathways to com-puter integrated manufacturing (CIM)for nontraditional students. This is anoutstanding example of regional collabo-ration: the CIM project involves 30 highschools, two community colleges(Bristol and Massasoit), four-year insti-tutions and several businesses includingTexas Instruments, Sapphire Electricand Quaker Fabrics.

Not all alternative sources need bein huge amounts, however, as collegesremain grateful for all categories ofsupport. For instance, BCC recentlyearned a $3,000 grant to promote safe-ty measures for children in automo-

HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS—WORKING WITH THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, THE STATE BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND CONCERNED LEGISLATORS—SHOULD

ACT IN CONCERT TO GUARANTEE SCHOLARSHIPS AND TEACHING POSITIONS TO

SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO EARN BACHELOR’S DEGREES AND AGREE TO A TERM

OF SERVICE IN A PREDETERMINED TEACHING POSITION OF THEIR CHOICE.


Fall River has historically lagged thestate and region in educational attain-ment and economic development.When the city’s towering textile indus-try fell, unemployment rates soared to12 percent. During the economic miracle years of the 1980s, the city’sunemployment was roughly double thestate average. Much of Fall River’s economic hardship could be traced to poor educational attainment. Indeed, fully half of southeasternMassachusetts residents age 25 andover had no high school diploma in1980. Fradkin remembers when thehigh school dropout rate in Fall Riverhovered around 45 percent. All thathas changed. State data suggest thecity’s dropout rate has decreased to 5percent. And by December 2000, Fall

River’s joblessness rate, though stillhigher than the state average, was 4.1 percent.

The city has provided fertile groundfor a variety of economic developmentinitiatives including special loan pro-grams for city businesses. But someof the credit also goes to a series ofeducation programs aimed at chang-ing attitudes in the city. A sampling:

American Dream Challenge.

Fradkin founded the AmericanDream Challenge in 1994 based onthe belief that students who have adream as well as financial supportwill be more likely to stay in schooland stay away from drugs. The chal-lenge, launched as part of the FallRiver Dollars for Scholars program,rewards students who maintain high

academic standards and good schoolattendance records, perform publicservice and write an essay focused onhow education can help them appreci-ate freedom and achieve the AmericanDream. In grade four, students com-pete for $100 awards toward college.They may reapply for additional grantsin grades six, eight and 10, creatingthe potential for a total scholarshipworth $1,000. The scholarship fundsare generated by private donations atno cost to Fall River.

The goal of the program, says the80-year-old Fradkin, is to create a cas-cading effect whereby more studentsare inspired to reach their educationalgoals, school dropout rates decline,young people value good citizenship,and the city benefits from volunteer

Scholarship CityHow Fal l River Is Creat i ng A mer ican Dreams

I n the hardscrabble industrial city of Fall River, Mass., where an optometrist named Irving Fradkinquietly opened the nation’s first Dollars for Scholars chapter nearly half a century ago, some newcollege access initiatives may also deserve national attention and replication.

biles. Institutions of higher educationacross the country continue to benefitfrom a generous spirit among the localcommunities. Like many colleges,Bristol has established a foundation tohelp raise private funds to supportscholarships, purchases of equipment,professional development activities andcapital campaigns. Now in its 20thyear, the BCC Foundation has developedassets with a net worth of $4.5 million.

These kinds of partnerships anddevelopment efforts will become evenmore important as a device to copewith budgeting imbalances. Publichigher education in the United Stateshas experienced declining state sup-port as a percentage of operating costs; consequently, colleges and uni-versities have imposed higher prices

on students. A 1997 report by theCommission on National Investment in Higher Education, ominously enti-tled “Breaking the Social Contract,”concluded that higher educationfound itself in a fiscal crisis because“costs and demand are rising muchfaster than funding.” In someinstances, colleges such as BCC haveenjoyed increases in state funding buthave found that mushroomingexpenses exceed these relatively mod-est increases. Demographic projectionsexacerbate the effects of this fiscal cri-sis. By 2005, more than 20 million stu-dents will reach high school and anadditional 19.2 million will enter ele-mentary schools. If the continuinggrowth of immigration is also takeninto account, the world of education

will be hard-pressed under currentfinancial trends to meet these formida-ble challenges.

The American community collegeis ideally placed within both theworld of education and the globalmarketplace. Our mission takes usacross a considerable landscape:transfer education (to a bachelor’sdegree or beyond), occupational/technical education, developmentaland remedial education, workforcetraining and economic development.Community colleges are the jewels oftheir communities and their regions.No place is that more true than insoutheastern Massachusetts.

John J. Sbrega is president of

Bristol Community College.


community services. Fradkin countson peer pressure to attract studentswho see their friends earning supportand want to do the same.

Like Dollars for Scholars,Fradkin’s other initiatives employ funways to raise money and awareness.A Pennies for Scholars program orga-nized by Fradkin last year encouragedstudents ages 9 to 13 to empty theirpiggy banks for the American DreamChallenge. At one middle school, stu-dents raised $400 for scholarships—all in pennies.

Living Heroes. It’s no secret thatchildren adopt role models fromHollywood and the world of sports.Educators can clarify misconceptionsof what a hero is by showcasing every-day people who make a difference in their communities. As RobertLawrence, pastor of Fall River’s FirstCongregational Church, wrote in theFall River Herald, “America needs realheroes—not just the ones we readabout in our daily newspapers, butalso those who are behind the scenesand in a low-key, humble mannerbecome a hero to some unknown childwho has the potential for greatness.”

In 1997, Fradkin started the LivingHeroes program featuring an annualceremony in which fourth-graderswho write winning essays meet adultswho have made a difference in thecity. Students take home biographiesof the living heroes; the heroes takehome essays by the students. The goalis for students to see the heroes asrole models and emulate them.

In addition, a PerpetualScholarship program allows contribu-tors to memorialize these heroes bymaking $2,000 tax-deductible dona-tions in their names toward fourth-grade scholarships.

Unsung Heroes. With supportfrom a bilingual literacy consultantnamed Odete Amarello, Fall River hasalso begun shining a light specificallyon outstanding teachers and parentswho are nominated by their principalsor fellow teachers or chosen based on

essays they write about why they loveteaching or how they have motivatedstudents. Last year’s winning teacherswere Denise Ward, now principal of theFrank M. Silvia School, Harvey Ussachof Bishop Connolly High School andSusan Lanyon of the Wylie School. Thecity plans to hold an annual event atthe city’s Portuguese Cultural Centerwhere the exemplary teachers willreceive citations and the gratitude ofabout 400 local citizens. Ward will bethe keynote speaker. Fradkin, mean-while, tirelessly pitches the story of theunsung heroes to local newspapers andradio stations as a way of highlightingthe value of teaching.

Choices. Fradkin also hasappeared at two or three local ele-mentary and middle schools eachweek to talk to students in gradesfour through eight about the dangersof using drugs and making bad choic-es. In 1998, Bristol County SheriffThomas Hodgson, whose no-nonsenselaw enforcement has earned him bothpraise and criticism, began collaborat-ing with Fradkin to urge youngstersto stay in school and to draw atten-tion to how government investment inprisons could be redirected to sup-port schools and social programs.During one visit, Hodgson asked stu-dent volunteers to stand on a 7 x 10foot block of paper for 10 minutes toexperience what it’s like to be locked up. “Bad choices lead to waking up at 7 every day, even on weekends, having no privacy, nowalls, and not being able to call momor dad,” warned the sheriff.

Fradkin and Hodgson have pitchedtheir approach on choices to nationallaw enforcement groups, and theAmerican Dream Challenge model isbeing shared among Dollars forScholars chapters across the nation.Fall River once supplied the nationwith textiles. The city just might do thesame with education access initiatives.

—John O. Harney

A recent Brown Universitystudy of more than 300Dominican, Cambodian and Portuguese parents in Providence and EastProvidence finds a relativelylow level of involvement inchildren’s education includ-ing attending teacher conferences and settingaside a place for homework.Cambodian parents werethe least involved, partlybecause of low levels ofmaternal education (justfive years on average), difficulty with English anda cultural belief that ques-tioning teachers would be disrespectful, according tothe study’s author, Brownprofessor of education, psychology and pediatricsCynthia Garcia Coll.

In a lot of southeasternMassachusetts manufactur-ing firms, you can still tell amanager from a line workerby the language they speak.Recently, English-speakingmanagers at the QuakerFabric Corp. in Fall Riverwere having difficulty com-municating with their mostlyPortuguese-speaking work-force. So at Quaker's request,the University of Mass-achusetts Dartmouth beganoffering managers a cus-tomized conversationalPortuguese program betweenshifts at the company's learn-ing center in Fall River.

—J.O.H

Education Melting Pot?

Language Barrier

EDUCATORS CAN CLARIFY MISCONCEPTIONS OF WHAT A HERO IS BY SHOWCASING

EVERYDAY PEOPLE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THEIR COMMUNITIES.


Calling Minority TeachersELEANOR M. McMAHON

The report concludes that state, insti-tutional and local policy has thepotential to alleviate the shortage ofminority teachers over the long term.The report also notes that state edu-cation officials too often lack infor-mation about minority teachers,including their preparation and theirassignments. When this informationis available, the report suggests, insti-tutions and school districts will beable to make decisions that will resultin a sufficient supply of minorityteachers in the future.

StrategiesThe ECS report also makes note of anumber of initiatives around the coun-try designed to increase the numberof minority teachers. For example, inMinnesota, the St. Paul school districthad a minority recruitment team com-prised of teachers, principals andadministrative staff, which identifiedminority high school students inter-ested in teaching. ECS also noted ajoint effort by New York’s QueensCollege and La Guardia CommunityCollege to recruit minority teachers.

Many of these initiatives are ongo-ing, and a number of new ones havebeen put in place. One of the mostexciting and effective has been theRockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF)Fellowship Program for MinorityStudents Entering the TeachingProfession. Launched in 1992, the program provides minority collegestudents with the financial assis-tance, personal support and profes-sional development opportunities they

need to become exceptional teachers. One principle underlying the RBF fel-

lowship program is the belief that minor-ity teachers provide students of colorwith a positive sense of cultural identityand are more likely to include the con-cerns and perspectives of America’sincreasingly heterogeneous society incurricular and education policy.

Since its inception, the fellowshipprogram has benefited 150 students of education, including nine NewEnglanders. Eighty-nine of the formerfellows were teaching in schoolsacross the country by the year 2000,and 49 more were on their way tobecoming classroom teachers.

The RBF plans a continuation ofits first program—specifically, nomi-nations have been solicited fromselected colleges and universities infall 2000 and a new class of fellowswill be admitted in spring 2001.

Last year, the RBF publishedVoices of Insight & Power whichreported on the recruitment effort and support of minority teachers inpublic schools. RBF Chair Steven C.Rockefeller noted that the Voices

report “clearly illustrates how out-standing minority teachers can enrich and strengthen America’s public schools.”

In assembling material for itsreport, the RBF encouraged the fel-lows to tell their own stories. Onestory was provided by Debby Saintilwho, after graduating from MiltonAcademy and attending WellesleyCollege, decided to become a teacher.She studied for a year at the Harvard

Graduate School of Education beforetaking a teaching job at the JeremiahE. Burke High School in theDorchester section of Boston.

In a compelling profile titled “Notfor the Faint of Heart,” Saintil empha-sizes that education is a gift that mustnot be taken for granted. “It’s not aticket to a house in the suburbs or acar,” she concluded. “It’s something to be invested in the community as a whole.” Saintil also notes that whileher interest in the fellowship wasfinancial, she soon discovered anotherdimension to the program. “I was intro-duced to a diverse group of educatorsfrom around the nation. I met peoplewho shared the same commitment as I have toward the education of blackand Latino students. I met people whounapologetically laughed and cried as they recounted their experiencesworking with youth of color. The fellowship,” she says, “has connectedme to a community of people who aredriven by their hearts to make posi-tive steps to enforcing justice in allour communities.”

Eleanor M. McMahon is distin-

guished professor at the Taubman

Center for Public Policy and American

Institutions at Brown University and

a member of the Futures Project

Advisory Committee. McMahon is

a former chair of the New England

Board of Higher Education. She

served as co-chair of the ECS Alliance

for Minority Teachers and as a

member of the Rockefeller Brothers

Fund Minority Fellowship Board.

I n 1988, the Education Commission of the States (ECS) established the Alliance for Minority Teachersafter a series of forums about the future of the teaching profession had dramatized the need toaddress a growing shortage of black, Hispanic and American Indian teachers in the United States.

The alliance, which I co-chaired with Norman Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana, included representatives from 22 education, research and policymaking organizations. The resulting report, entitledNew Strategies for Producing Minority Teachers, recommends that colleges and high schools worktogether to ensure that schools and school districts can identify talented minority students early and seethat they get the preparation and guidance they need to enter and succeed in college.


More than 25 percent of students in Connecticut schools are minorities, but just 7

percent of Connecticut teachers are. Now in its third year, Connecticut’s Minority

Teacher Incentive Grant Program provides minority college juniors and seniors as

well as college graduates with up to $5,000 a year for the first two years of full-time

study in an undergraduate teacher preparation program at a Connecticut college or

university. About a dozen public and private colleges participate in the teacher incen-

tive program. Students who complete the program may also receive up to $2,500 a

year for up to four years to help pay off college loans if they teach in a Connecticut

public school.The program has made grants to nearly 100 minority students, a third

of whom are already teaching in Connecticut public schools ... The minority popula-

tion of Burlington,Vt., grew by 55 percent from 1990 to 2000, while the city’s white

population shrank, according to new census data.The Vermont Legislature recently granted state funds to the Coming Home

Foundation which provides postsecondary scholarships to minority students who agree to teach in elementary and secondary

schools in the state after graduation from college ... In Massachusetts, where minorities constitute 24 percent of students, the

Andover Woodrow-Wilson Institute for Recruitment of Teachers at Phillips Andover Academy, provides a four-week summer

training program and $1,000 stipend to African-American college juniors who are planning to teach following graduation or pur-

sue a graduate degree in education. Springfield College, in partnership with Springfield Public Schools, sponsors Project SPIRIT, a

program focusing on recruiting minorities to teach in the local community. ... Salve Regina University in Rhode Island offers full-

tuition scholarships to ethnic minorities who plan to major in education. Seven students have been granted scholarships since the

program’s inception in 1992 ... In Portland, Maine, the University of Maine has teamed up with Portland Public Schools to move

bilingual paraprofessionals into teaching positions.

Rec

ruit

ing

Min

orit

y T

each

ers

...

PHO

TO C

OU

RTES

Y O

F A

LISO

N M

cKEN

ZIE

.

A Matter of Degrees New Eng land and the Un ited States

W ith their workforce development emphasis

and low prices, community colleges have been

among the fastest-growing higher education

institutions nationally. Yet, as the number of associate

degrees conferred by U.S. colleges grew by 10 percent

between 1993 and 1998, the number granted by New England

colleges shrank by 10 percent to 26,530, according to a New

England Board of Higher Education analysis of federal

data published in FACTS 2001, the special annual directory

of CONNECTION.

The number of bachelor’s degrees granted by New

England institutions also declined during the five-year period,

while the number of graduate degrees grew.

ASSOCIATE DEGREES

1993 1998 % ChangeNew England 29,644 26,530 -11%

Middle Atlantic 85,783 86,042 0.3%

South Atlantic 89,162 101,663 14%

East South Central 36,632 28,285 -23%

West South Central 36,591 42,853 17%

East North Central 90,449 87,928 -3%

West North Central 37,483 44,776 19%

Mountain 28,574 39,023 37%

West 80,438 101,455 26%

United States Total 514,756 558,555 9%

MASTER’S DEGREES

1993 1998 % ChangeNew England 32,162 37,735 17%

Middle Atlantic 68,298 75,856 11%

South Atlantic 58,472 72,160 23%

East South Central 17,519 21,568 23%


East North Central 65,631 74,624 14%


Mountain 20,043 25,486 27%

West 49,923 54,258 9%


BACHELOR’S DEGREES

1993 1998 % ChangeNew England 85,411 80,143 -6%

Middle Atlantic 188,600 182,117 -3%

South Atlantic 188,880 199,971 6%



East North Central 207,842 203,674 -2%

West North Central 101,925 102,433 0.5%

Mountain 67,257 78,124 16%

West 150,424 155,371 3%

United States Total 1,165,178 1,184,406 2%

DOCTORATE DEGREES








Mountain 2,288 2,647 16%

West 6,325 6,789 7%


DEGREES CONFERRED BY REGIONS: 1993-1998

FIRST-PROFESSIONAL DEGREES








Mountain 2,152 2,168 1%

West 11,279 10,775 -4%


Source: New England Board of Higher Education analysis of U.S. Department of Education data.



To begin with, those people sitting onthe bench in front of the general storeweren’t really telling stories. They weresimply talking to each other. Whatrural New England farmer in his rightmind would ever have left his barnyardor orchard in order to swap anythingbut actual goods? What farm wifecould abandon her childrearing, food-preparing, wood-stacking and clothes-repairing in order to gab aimlessly withfriends and neighbors?

Although rural New Englandersmight never have told stories, they kepton talking to one another—and theystill do. The stories are the things theysay. We all tell stories like that. In thisway, we contain and embody commu-nity heritage, and the sooner we dis-abuse ourselves of the tendency tosentimentalize it and treat it as an itemof nostalgia, the sooner we will realizeits full worth.

The chief value of community her-itage in the classroom is not its quaint-ness nor its capacity to strengthen ourattachment to some departed goldenage. Rather, when schoolchildrenexplore the culture of their neighbor-hoods, towns and villages, they discov-er what firsthand learning is all about.They learn that history and traditioncontinue into the present—that we can

literally touch the past instead of justlooking it up in the encyclopedia.Moreover, this approach removes oneof the primary barriers to real educa-tion—the mistaken notion among somany students that the history and cul-ture they’re being taught isn’t theirs,

but rather a dead and distant set ofabstractions in a textbook.

The idea that informally exchangedtalk—call it storytelling if you like—is ofimmediate cultural value is a common-place assumption. Folklorists, ethnogra-phers, oral historians and others havebeen “collecting” the stuff for more thana century—archiving it, interpreting it,re-presenting it. We understand, in fact,that local culture is culture nonetheless,that the talk on the store porch and atquilting bees, tells us as much aboutNew England as the poetry of EmilyDickinson and Robert Frost.

Those of us who are educatorsknow that this talk has a certain educational value. Indeed, around the country, students are increasinglyexposed to community heritage.

Education in America has alwaysbeen in a crisis, of course, but in themidst of the current concerns about“accountability,” “alienation” and“attention-deficit,” the exploration oflocal culture would seem to be espe-

cially appropriate. Its compelling andpalpable content and its value as ameans of gathering primary sourcematerials lend themselves particularlywell to all manner of disciplined appli-cations. English teachers can design a writing curriculum around students’field reports. Social studies teacherscan supplement their textbookaccounts of World War II with locallygathered reminiscences from veterans.Science teachers can help their stu-dents learn basic concepts in biologyand earth science, among others, bytaking their classes outdoors andputting them to work observing localvernal pools and rock formations.

Michael Umphrey, the director ofthe pathbreaking Montana HeritageProject, puts it this way: “Studying his-tory, nature and folklife in the townsand neighborhoods that surroundthem, young people experience theadventure of discovery while learningthe skills of research, documentation,analysis, synthesis, interpretation, creation and presentation.”

This is a gospel we would do well to heed. Will it reveal the Shakespearesin our midst? Will the lore that kids gath-er in their communities restore somegolden age of storytelling? Not very likely.But students might learn to care aboutschool and look forward to going there.

Consider, for example, how highschool kids participating in theMontana Heritage Project discover thesettlement history of their own towns.They focus on the history of a singlebuilding and arrange for its placementon the National Register of HistoricPlaces. In southern New Mexico,Mexican-American teenagers conduct a detailed oral history in order to

Local Color How Com mu n ity Her itage

Enhances Educat ion

MICHAEL HOBERMAN

Once upon a time, many New England towns had gatheringplaces—general stores, usually—where locals met informallyevery day and, as we like to think, “told stories.” Gradually,

as second-growth forests marched across once open fields, and carsclosed the distances between villages and towns, many of the gathering places became empty shells or disappeared altogether.With their demise, we tell ourselves, the stories came to an end. Butthat’s not quite true.

ILLU

STRA

TIO

N B

Y JE

FF K

ILBU

RN,T

HE

PUBL

ICAT

ION

GRO

UP.

document the life and times of the bor-derland they call their own.

These students will know thatresearch is more rewarding than a tripto the library’s computer terminal. Theywill come to know their communitiesnot just as places to live in, but as well-springs of culture. And all that talk theycollect will instruct them in anotherway as well. Culture doesn’t vanish ifyou pay attention to what neighbors,parents, volunteer firefighters andshort-order cooks are saying.

Community heritage projects areoperating in New England as well.Elementary school children in ruralAntrim, N.H., fashion their own in-school local history museum andinvite the townspeople to view andcontribute to it.

In western Massachusetts, I’veworked with middle-school kids onseveral intergenerational interview pro-jects. One video documentary broughtus all into a home economics class-room in Turners Falls where a seventh-grade girl and her father madeanadama bread from their family’s 300-year-old recipe, while the grand-mother/granddaughter duo at the nextcooking station prepared a batch ofPolish gulumpkes. That particularsocial studies lesson meant all themore when the kids ate it for lunch.

One year later, another group ofmiddle-school kids spent one morninga week throughout the fall visiting oneof the last generations-old family farmsin Montague Center. Students watchedin wonderment as John Bitzer yoked uphis team of oxen, tended his bee-boxesand recounted the history of the housein which he’d been born, the house wewere sitting in. But nothing impressedthem more than the fact that, on ourlast day, after we’d treated Mr. Bitzerto pizza, he bent those pizza boxes inhalf and pushed them into his 100-yearold woodstove. He was a real man liv-ing in the real world, they saw, a manwho knew what to do with all that col-ored, olive-oil stained cardboard.

Cultural warriors watch with horroras civilization’s reputed bulwarks—theplays of Shakespeare, for instance—become less precious in the eyes ofyoung people with diminishing atten-

tion spans and dwindling academicabilities. What the warriors forget, ofcourse, is that those plays were firstperformed in noisy, beery halls and thatthose stories had as much a folk originas the blues. Of course, community her-itage will not replace Shakespeare. Butif properly taught and understood, localtalk—the folklife of the workplace, thekitchen counter, the bodega—can beanother variety of cultural expression.If kids can learn to appreciate thewords of a local dairy farmer—his actual words—they’ll also know how to appreciate the words of Shakespeare. If kids can be enthralled by an elderlyneighbor’s tale of crossing the Atlanticin pursuit of a new life in America,they’re all the more likely to beenthralled by the Odyssey. In fact, themore they explore the “common” verbalforms they encounter in their own com-munities, the more likely they’ll be towant to explore the “uncommon” oneswe’re so eager for them to master—thecontent of all those MCAS exams andother gauges of cultural literacy thatwe’ve devised.

We New Englanders like to thinkthat the past has a home here—thatour towns and cities are heritage museums in and of themselves, shrinesto Puritan stalwartness, Revolutionaryfervor, Industrial Age ingenuity. In myrural section of Massachusetts, everytown has a Historical Society all itsown. These towns revere their heritage;they heap it up in collected piles of oldphotographs, dusty Civil War uniforms,barrel-stave skis and bicentennial cook-books. Some of the historical societiesaround here possess an archive ofanother sort—a drawer or two full ofcassette tapes—interview footage fromsomeone’s oral history project of 10 or20 years ago. “We have to record thosestories before the old folks die,” I hear,and as a folklorist I’ve certainly donemy own enthusiastic share of inter-views with elders, interviews that werecalculated, at least in part, to recordthe lost lore of a world before cars,reforestation and an urban economy.

Lest we forget, however, NewEngland’s uniqueness derives fromsomething other than merely antiquarian leanings. We knew this—

or should have—as long ago as 1836,when Emerson spoke of his own “retro-spective” age that built “the sepulchersof the fathers” instead of beholding“God and nature face to face.”

Face-to-face encounters with knowl-edge are what we need most. Highereducation institutions can help becausemany of them can supply resourcesand guidance in fieldwork and ethnog-raphy, as well as ideas for classroomapplication. And since colleges and uni-versities are our primary teacher train-ing grounds, we ought to be able tolook to them for encouragement andsponsorship here; a community her-itage curriculum may be a commonsense approach to education, but it’salso cutting edge.

The University of New Hampshire’sCenter for the Humanities is sponsor-ing just such a program. The NewEngland Community Heritage Project,funded by the U.S. Department ofJustice, is co-sponsored by theAmerican Folklore Society and severalstate humanities councils. The projectwill bring 36 public middle and highschool teachers from all six NewEngland states to Durham this summerfor a five-day, intensive workshop onfieldwork and classroom application oflocal culture study. We would like tothink the institute will serve as anexample of what other New Englandcolleges and universities can do to helppromote the study of local culture inNew England schools.

If the community heritage curricu-lum works, it does so because it haslife in it and because the studentsknow that. Bringing local heritage intothe schools doesn’t promote “selfesteem” and it’s not meant to pander.It’s a means, rather, of making educa-tion an encounter of living beings withother living beings.

Michael Hoberman is the coordina-

tor of the New England Community

Heritage Project and an assistant

professor of English at Fitchburg State

College. He is the author of “Yankee

Moderns,” a study of oral traditions in

western Massachusetts (University of

Tennessee Press, 2000).



Innovation often thrives on a new dis-ruptive technology—one that changesthe fundamental operating assump-tions of an industry. But organizationsthat create disruptive technologiesoften fail to capitalize on them and,worse, often fall victim to them in thehands of others.

This was the case with the failureof innovative, well-run minicomputermanufacturers like Digital, Prime,Data General, and Wang Laboratories,all of which failed to launch success-ful lines of personal computers. It wasthe case with PC manufacturers whoaggressively invested in handheldcomputing years ago and yet todayoffer little competition to wildly popu-lar Palm products. It was the case atthe turn of the century with sailingship builders who never becameimportant builders of steamships.

Higher education—one of this coun-try’s most successful industries interms of diversity of offerings, overallquality, international reputation andhold on market—is facing dramaticshifts. Its market is changing. A minority

of students fit the 18 to 21 year-old residential profile of past years. The global demand for higher education is profound, but many nations lack cap-ital resources to recreate or buy into

our traditional systems of instruction.New technologies are redefining when and where learning takes place,exemplified in distance learning. New providers of instruction such as the University of Phoenix, JonesUniversity and Harcourt HigherEducation are entering the market-place. Most importantly, the value cri-teria the public is applying to highereducation is shifting, with affordability,convenience, just-in-time relevancy,lifelong learning and vocational applica-tion becoming increasingly important.

Much of this change is made possi-ble through the Internet, perhaps theultimate disruptive educational tech-nology. Yet while colleges and univer-sities have all the internal knowledgeand skills necessary to successfullyinnovate with Internet technologies,many fail to do so. The lurchinglaunch of the Western Governors’University and the failure of theCalifornia State University’s onlinecollege speaks to the great difficultythat large, well-equipped institutionsare having in making the shift toonline education. The high cost/lowrevenue aspects of other attempts donot bode well.

This is not a crisis of leadership inhigher education. University and col-

lege presidents and their staffs are asacutely aware of technological changeas anyone. But they labor under ahandful of principles that workagainst effective innovation.

First, a college’s ability to procuretuition dollars and charitable contri-butions dictates its overall financialsuccess. As a result, institutionsbecome very good at killing ideas thattheir students and donors don’t like.This is why boards of trustees, heavilyloaded with wealthy and often nostal-gic alumni, exert such a powerfullyconstraining influence on many institu-tions. It is also why the best-endowed,most powerful and established institu-tions produce excellent research insustaining technologies, yet communi-ty colleges, with tiny endowments andlittle or no dependence on tuition dol-

lars, have been the great innovators inteaching and learning.

Second, disruptive technologiesoften allow new markets to emerge andprovide opportunity for those who arewilling to serve them. (Indeed, successwith innovative and disruptive tech-nologies often depends on startingwith a market you do not already serveproviding less revenue than the estab-lished market.) But those markets

The Challenge of Innovation A Call for Risk-Taking in Academia

PAUL LEBLANC AND CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN

T he Internet may come to pose no more threat to traditionalface-to-face delivery of higher education than did any number of new dot-com companies prove to pose to their

brick and mortar progenitors. However, in the area of continuing education, graduate and professional education, corporate training,and a need to meet growing global demand far exceeding the capacity of traditional delivery systems, our colleges and universitiesmay not be best positioned to take advantage of new online technologies and retain their role as market leaders. Other industriesprovide ample evidence that this might be just the situation facingcolleges and universities in the next 20 years.

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION

MEANS TAKING MULTIPLE

TRIES AT THE TARGET, LEARNING WITH EACH

ITERATION, EXPECTING

FAILURE, AND

ADJUSTING QUICKLY.


rarely fit the economics of large, well-established institutions. Any adminis-trator would love the idea of offering a$90,000 MBA like Duke’s hybrid dis-tance learning degree. But how manyinstitutions can sustain a substantialcommitment to an underserved popula-tion such as senior citizens?

Third, while market research andgood planning are the hallmarks ofeffective management, genuine innova-tion and the accommodation of disrup-tive technologies defy such practice.Research and planning are critical tosustaining successful innovation, butthey have a long history of dismal failure when it comes to making break-through use of technology. Institutionsand foundations interested in this levelof innovation must accept a high levelof unpredictability in the strategiesand programs that will lead to success.

Finally, and perhaps most threaten-ingly, disruptive technologies are dis-ruptive because while they start smalland with underserved markets, theysubsequently become fully perfor-mance-competitive with the main-stream. Indeed, the evidence stronglysuggests that disruptive transforma-tional change almost always begins

with nontraditional markets. Adult education started as an ancillary rev-enue generator for colleges and univer-sities more than 25 years ago and adultor nontraditional age students nowdominate the college market.Marlboro College has taken only twoyears to graduate as many studentsfrom its online programs as it doesfrom its traditional residential college.

None of this suggests that institu-tions of higher education should actmore like businesses. It does suggest,however, that institutions of highereducation and private foundations—among the principle investors in inno-vation—learn some lessons from thegreat companies that have failed whenconfronted with new technologies.

First, make forays into new tech-nologies and new markets fast, inex-pensive and flexible. These three qualities fly in the face of academic tradition, but disruptive innovationmeans taking multiple tries at thetarget, learning with each iteration,expecting failure, and adjusting quick-ly. The cost of each try needs to bemodest so that the overall effort can be sustained. This suggests a very different funding model than the onecurrently used by foundations and universities.

Second, don’t shy away from newtechnologies that seem inadequatetoday. We know that the curve oftechnological improvement oftenexceeds the curve of user demand.For example, the online tools of fiveyears ago were inadequate for creat-ing rich, virtual learning environ-ments. Today, distance learning canprovide wholly online instructionalexperiences as rich and fulfilling andeffective as traditional face-to-faceclassrooms. Different, no doubt, butbetter in many ways in terms of cost,convenience, and customization.

If private foundations are to play arole in changing the conditions thatengender successful innovation, theyshould become more comfortablewith risk and failure. They shouldmake more modest investments, butcommit to sustained investment overtime contingent on incremental learn-ing by the institution and small suc-cesses. They should set the fundingagenda less narrowly than many ofthem do now. In particular, if theywant to support disruptive innovation,they should welcome initiatives thattarget new markets and nontraditionalcustomers. They should be wary ofproposals that promise disruptiveinnovation within established institu-tions for traditional customers.

For their part, colleges and universi-ties should not overstate their case,

suggesting that the idea for which they seek funding is fully thought out, tested, a sure success, and theonly missing piece is the necessaryfunding; that the funded initiative willbe transformative on their campuses;and that once successful there, themodel will be transportable and scal-

able for campuses across the country—in short, that it will transform all ofhigher education. These claims areoften made, or at least implied, and theynever happen this way. Disruptive inno-vation doesn’t happen this way either.

Instead, institutions making a casefor funding from a foundation shouldbring forth a modest proposal, establishits process for agile recalibration andavoid trying to effect such innovationwithin its core organization or for itstraditional, already well-served markets.

This last point is critical. Collegesand universities need to insulate theirinnovators from the mainstream orga-nization, at least in the early stages.The cornerstones of quality in estab-lished institutions—traditional governance structures, curriculumcommittees, careful and critical con-sideration of the new, the apprentice-ship system of graduate teaching andthen faculty ranks—will impede theirefforts.

The Ivy League bastions of Harvardand Yale and such Potted Ivies asAmherst and Williams may dominateour collective mythology aboutAmerican higher education and informnovels and films, but they are hardlyrepresentative. Higher education inAmerica is primarily land-grant univer-sities, state colleges, huge communitycollege systems, and small, strugglingliberal arts colleges. None of them canremain sanguine in the face of disrup-tive changes in higher education. Butall of them, with those who invest inthem, can create a context in whichthey become innovators.

Paul J. LeBlanc is president

of Marlboro College. Clayton

Christensen is a professor at

the Harvard Business School and

author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma,

When New Technologies Cause Great

Firms to Fail.”

IF PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS ARE TO PLAY A ROLE

IN CHANGING THE CONDITIONS THAT ENGENDER

SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION, THEY SHOULD BECOME

MORE COMFORTABLE WITH RISK AND FAILURE.

AF


W hen the National Centerfor Public Policy andHigher Education released

its Report Card for Higher Education

last December, New Hampshire wasone of only three states nationwide to receive an “F” for affordability. Thestudy measured affordability in partby the percentage of family incomerequired to pay for college expensesminus financial aid—30 percent inNew Hampshire. Rhode Island alsofailed in affordability (37 percent), asdid Maine (30 percent), which has forthe last few years ranked just aboveNew Hampshire in its per-capita con-tribution from state funds to highereducation. While Maine has held onto49th place, New Hampshire has main-tained its place as dead last amongthe 50 states. For New Hampshire to overtake Maine, it will need toincrease its per-capita funding by 30 percent, or $25 million.

The cost of higher education inNew Hampshire is not affordable at a time when the state has the greatestneed for college graduates. It hasbeen estimated that New Hampshiremust double or triple the number ofcollege graduates to meet the staffingdemands of New Hampshire-basedindustry, especially its high-tech sec-tor. According to the New HampshireOffice of Policy Analysis, the numberof high school graduates in NewHampshire is expected to increase by more than 20 percent by 2010. Thisgrowth would provide the state withthe workforce it needs—if these highschool graduates go on to receive a college education in New Hampshire.

The lack of adequate funding forpublic education in New Hampshire is forcing tuition rates out of thereach of the young men and womenwho grow up in our state and want tobe educated here. Offering affordablehigher education to keep New

Hampshire’s high school graduates in the state is vital to developing askilled and adequate workforce. Butwithout sufficient funding and financialaid from the state, New Hampshire students must pay a larger share ofthe cost of their education.

University System of NewHampshire Trustees are working tokeep annual tuition increases at orbelow 4 percent in return for 5 percentannual increases from the stateLegislature. Capping tuition withoutsignificant increases in funding fromthe state, however, leaves state institu-tions caught in a tight squeeze.

The cost of operations at PlymouthState College is 12 percent lower thanat other comparable institutions; how-ever, only 18 percent of the college’soperating budget is provided by theState of New Hampshire. This is farbelow the national average, whichexceeds 30 percent. Almost 46 per-cent of Plymouth State’s annual operating budget comes from tuitionand fees, and the remainder comesfrom private gifts, grants and othersources. Counting housing and diningcosts paid by residential students, thestudent share of the operating budgetis almost 64 percent. Additionally, the state provides only $1.3 millionin resident scholarships compared to $7.7 million in Maine and $12.3 million in Vermont.

In response to the state’s educationand workforce needs, the UniversitySystem of New Hampshire is seekingto partner with the Legislature to con-trol the costs of in-state tuition whilemaintaining a first-rate public post-secondary education system. Thiseffort calls for a contribution from boththe University System and the state.The state has been asked to continueits investment in the System with 5percent annual increases for UniversitySystem operating budgets for fiscal

years 2001 and 2002, and to authorizefunding for a capital budget of $185million over a six-year period. [In thespring, the New Hampshire House sentthe Senate an operating budget thatincludes a 5 percent increase and $100million in capital expenditures for theUniversity System.] In return, theSystem will do its part to maximize the state’s investment by stabilizing in-state tuition rates, maintaining academic excellence and serving as an economic engine for the NewHampshire economy.

In the same Report Card that gavethe state an “F” for affordability, NewHampshire earned the highest grade in the nation in completion—one ofonly four “A” grades given nationwide.According to the Report Card, NewHampshire has something to teachhigher education systems in otherstates. We know how to keep studentsin school, keep them engaged and howto prepare them for the workforce thatour state needs. However, providingaccess to higher education is part ofthe mission of public higher educa-tion—a promise that cannot be kept if the price tag is too high.

Certainly, the Report Card doesn’ttell the whole story of either comple-tion or affordability of higher educationin New Hampshire, but added to otherexisting data on funding of higher edu-cation, it reveals a need for attention—for dialogue between representatives ofhigher education and the members ofthe Legislature, and for alumni, friends,parents and students to make theirvoices heard. The future of higher edu-cation in New Hampshire is importantto the future of the state.

Donald P. Wharton is president of

Plymouth State College. This article is

reprinted from the Winter 2001 issue

of Plymouth Magazine.

Flunking on Costs National Report Card Raises Alarm over

Affordability of Higher Education in New Hampshire

DONALD P. WHARTON


Relying on constitutional authorityand longstanding practice and inspiredby the precedent of earlier educationcompacts among the southern andwestern states, New England’s gover-nors, one by one from 1954 through1957, entered into a New EnglandHigher Education Compact to share theregion’s higher education resources andwork together to meet workforce needs.

The original signatories to the com-pact included Massachusetts Gov.Christian Herter, who as a state legis-lator in the 1930s championed the ideaof using interstate compacts to solveregional problems in New England.Herter went on to become secretary ofstate under President Eisenhower.Other governors who signed the com-pact included Abraham Ribicoff ofConnecticut, who later served as sec-retary of health, education and welfarein the Kennedy administration andMaine’s Edmund Muskie, who becamesecretary of state under PresidentCarter, as well as Lane Dwinell of NewHampshire, Dennis J. Roberts ofRhode Island and Joseph B. Johnson ofVermont.

The original signatories shared an understanding of the historicimportance of higher education toNew England and the foresight to

see its potential contributions to theregion’s economy and quality of life.

Special agreementsAn interstate compact is a constitution-ally authorized agreement betweentwo or more states that is both recog-nized as a legally binding contractand has the force of statutory law.There are 192 interstate compacts in force in the United States today,including nine in New England,according to the Kentucky-basednational Council of State Governments,which tracks the agreements. In addition to education, interstate compacts cover the operation of multistate port facilities, the distribu-tion of regional river water amongstates, energy management and con-servation of natural resources. NewEngland’s compacts apply to waterpollution control, law enforcement,health protection, dairy pricing,trucking and emergency military aid,as well as higher education.

The wide range of interstate com-pacts in use today enable states to doin concert what they legally cannot doacting individually. Most of those inexistence today were entered into dur-ing the period from the end of WorldWar II to the mid-1970s. Impetus for

that surge was given by the landmarkarticle by Felix Frankfurter, a HarvardLaw School professor who would laterbecome a distinguished justice of theU.S. Supreme Court, and James M.Landis writing in the Yale Law Journal

(1925) on “The Compact Clause of the Constitution.”

The idea of using the regions as labo-ratories for seeking new creative policiesin the states became popular during thepostwar period. The idea was to shift thestates away from a distant, top-heavyfederal government and more towardstate and local control, which is closer to the people. It was felt that neighboringstates in a geographic area could bemore creative in seeking solutions toregional problems beyond the compe-tence of any single state to resolve.

In recent years, there has been moreemphasis on adding new states toalready existing compacts and revisingoperating compacts to reflect rapidchanges in information technology, com-munications, finance and trade, and theevolving need for environmental protec-tion, energy resources and conservation.

Sharing resourcesThe governors who created the NewEngland Higher Education Compactbuilt four basic purposes into theagreement: broaden educational oppor-tunities for New Englanders; use stateeducation resources on a regionalbasis to reduce tuition costs for out-of-state students; avoid duplication ofhigh-cost education programs in thestates; and strengthen the regionaleconomy by producing more collegegraduates in scientific, medical, engi-neering and technical fields.

The founding governors also gavetheir successors good reason to stick

Interstate 6New Eng land’s H igher Educat ion Compact

Has Stood the Test of T i me

MELVIN H. BERNSTEIN

I nterstate compacts are one of the least understood yet most productive legal tools for states to solve problems that transcendtheir boundaries. Though unfamiliar to many legislators and state

officials, the compacts actually predate the U.S. Constitution. They werecommonly used by the colonies to settle boundary disputes and the practice was later carried over to and authorized by the Articles ofConfederation. The power of states to enter into interstate agreementswas then written into the Constitution under Article I, Section 10, inwhat has become known as the “compact clause.”


together through tough times. They builtinto the compact a two year “cooling-off” period, so a state contemplatingwithdrawal from the compact has timeto reconsider the costs and benefits ofmembership, and the remaining statescan continue operating effectively underthe regional agreement.

The New England Board of HigherEducation (NEBHE) was created in1955 as the interstate agency chargedwith carrying out these purposes.Within a few years, NEBHE had established what remains its flagshipprogram—an initiative enabling NewEngland residents to pay reducedtuition at out-of-state public collegesand universities within the six-stateregion if they pursue designated degreeprograms not offered by their home-state public institutions.

NEBHE began this RegionalStudent Program (RSP) in 1957 andenrolled 301 students in 1958-59. Bythe year 2001, nearly 160,000 NewEnglanders had passed through theprogram. Last year alone, 7,616 NewEngland students saved an average of$5,230 each in tuition costs for a totalof nearly $40 million.

RSP students pursue majors in suchhigh-demand fields as laser optics tech-nology, biomedical engineering and neu-robiology, fields critical to the region’sfast-changing, knowledge-driven work-force. Pamela Gaetani, a Connecticut res-ident who majored in clinical lab scienceat a community college in Massachusetts,explains: “As a mother of three childrenwith no financial aid at all, the reducedtuition was extremely helpful. I was ableto go to an out-of-state school that wasonly seven miles from home.”

The six states, meanwhile, save mil-lions of dollars because they don’t haveto duplicate expensive programs infields such as pharmacy, biophysicsand industrial technology.

NEBHE’s contributions to the edu-cation and economic growth of NewEngland are by no means limited to theregional student exchange. NEBHE’sNew England Technology EducationPartnership, for example, has brought$1.7 million in National ScienceFoundation grants to New Englandsince 1995. The partnership provides

state-of-the-art educational programsand equipment to colleges and sec-ondary schools in the emerging fieldsof fiber-optics technology, telecommu-nications technologies, photonics andaquaculture.

Short-term pressuresDespite the big tuition savings to NewEngland’s residents, capital cost sav-ings to state governments and a recordof productive regional programs, thecompact’s existence has been imperiledfrom time to time by short-term budgetpressures in the largest states, namelyConnecticut and Massachusetts.

By way of background, each state isrepresented on the NEBHE board byeight delegates appointed by the gover-nors and legislative leadership. Basicfunding to support NEBHE programsis provided by the six New Englandstates through annual assessments.The New England Higher EducationCompact’s funding provision autho-rizes annual contributions based onstate population unless the boardadopts another basis for making itsbudget recommendations to the states.That base funding provision is largelydrawn from the nation’s first interstateeducation compact, the SouthernRegional Education Compact, whichwas formed by 15 southern states in1948, and similarly relied on state pop-ulation as the formula for funding withthe provision that another basis forfunding could be adopted, and indeed,each member state now pays an equalamount annually. That agreement wasfollowed by the Western RegionalEducation Compact, which wasapproved by 13 western states in 1953.The western compact took a differenttack, requiring that annual operatingcosts be equally divided among thecompacting states. In practice, NEBHEhas followed a midway position in exer-cising its budget responsibility, assess-ing an initial flat $10,000 fee to each ofits member states with the remainderassessed on the basis of state popula-tion relative to the total New Englandpopulation.

The first challenge to the compactarose in 1980 when the ConnecticutLegislature approved a bill declaring

that it was in its best interest to with-draw from the New England HigherEducation Compact and proceeded tonotify the five other states of thatintention. Seeking to establish an alter-native to NEBHE’s regionwide RSP,Connecticut sounded out the otherstates to see if they would enter intoseparate agreements for studentexchanges instead of operating underthe regional compact. The memberstates stood firm in their resolve touphold the compact, and a year later,Connecticut lawmakers repealed thewithdrawal legislation.

The cooling-off period worked just as the founding governors hopedit would work for future generations:The five other New England stateskept the regional program intact,while bringing before the ConnecticutLegislature the facts demonstratingthat the compact’s benefits far exceedthe costs of membership.

It did not take long before the cool-ing-off period was tested once again.Maine Gov. Joseph Brennan officiallynotified NEBHE and the five othermember state governors in June 1981that his state intented to withdrawfrom the compact, effective in twoyears. Brennan based that decisionon “our feeling that though beneficial,the [NEBHE] program was not essen-tial to our state ...” The two-yearbreathing period allowed NEBHE andits Maine delegates to show theBrennan administration and the stateLegislature the cost-benefit evidencethat led Maine to reverse its decisionin July 1983. Brennan declared in hisreinstatement letter that after evaluat-ing his state's participation in NEBHEprograms, the legislative and execu-tive branches of government “haveconcluded that Maine derives sub-stantial benefits from membership inthe Compact,” and that NEBHE wasboth pursuing important prioritiesand pursuing them effectively fromMaine's point of view.

The next major battle over the com-pact occurred in 1989 when Mass-achusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, aDemocrat, defaulted on payment of itsannual assessment after two years ofbeing in arrears. After much delibera-


tion, NEBHE declared Massachusettsto be in legal default of its financialobligation and sent letters to Bay Statestudents in the RSP warning them thattheir tuition savings were in jeopardy.The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass.,ran an editorial headlined “StateDefaults, Students Pay,” in which itnoted that 1,400 Bay State students“are faced with immense tuitionincreases because Massachusetts hasreneged on its financial obligations”under the regional compact. ThePatriot Ledger added, “The reciprocalagreement is a sensible way to shareeducational resources in the region”and warned that provoking the sharprise in tuition “is not the kind of thingMassachusetts—a world leader in edu-cation—should be doing to thousandsof New England students.”

Confronted with the reality ofMassachusetts residents seeing hugetuition increases and losing affordableaccess to valuable academic programsin the five other New England states,Dukakis relented and agreed to paystate funding obligations in full.

In 1996, Connecticut Gov. John G.Rowland, a Republican, proposed zero-ing out NEBHE funding, and a bill wasintroduced in the state Senate to termi-nate Connecticut’s membership in thecompact. But once again when state leg-islative leaders studied the actual costsand benefits of compact membership,they quickly moved to restore NEBHEfunding to the budget, and it wasapproved without further debate. Thefunding in question totaled $307,670—amicroscopic 0.0033 percent of that year’stotal state expenditures of $9.2 billion.

Last year, Massachusetts wentthrough a similar exercise when Gov.Paul Cellucci, a Republican, omittedNEBHE’s line item from his proposedbudget. The Legislature later restoredthe funding, amounting to $714,292—again, coincidentally, 0.0033 percent oftotal state expenditures of $21.5 billion.

Compacts comparedCuriously, none of the nation’s otherthree regional higher education com-pacts have experienced either a defaultor a formal notice of withdrawal fromany of their original member states.Both the southern and western regional

agreements served as useful models forNew England’s own higher educationcompact, including the cooling-off pro-vision which they share.

The Midwestern Higher EducationCompact, created by seven midwesternstates in 1991, was the last of the fouroperating regional education agree-ments to be approved, and alsoincludes the two-year cooling-off provi-sion approved by its sister compactorganizations.

In view of its precarious budget his-tory, it is remarkable that the NewEngland Higher Education Compacthas managed to survive intact for near-ly a half-century. The basis for thatdurability can be found in the provi-sions of two unique documents thathave made its survival possible. Thefirst is the provision that the foundinggovernors wrote into Article IX of thecompact, requiring that no withdraw-al action of the state become effectiveuntil two years after formal noticehad been sent to the governors of theother compacting states. The second is the special status conferred byArticle I, Section 10 of the U.S.Constitution, which authorizes statesto enter into compacts with oneanother with the consent of Congress.That same section of the Constitutionfurther prohibits any state from pass-ing a law impairing the obligation ofexisting contracts. In one of the mostinfluential cases involving interstatecompacts, West Virginia ex rel. Dyer

v. Sims, the U.S. Supreme Court ruledin 1950 that a state cannot unilaterallynullify a compact, that a compact is anenforceable contract and that only thenation’s highest court has the finalpower to resolve the validity and oblig-ations of compacts between states.The Supreme Court in an opinion writ-ten by Justice Frankfurter, reversed anunwarranted interpretation by theWest Virginia Supreme Court of itsown state constitution holding that thestate auditor could not lawfully with-hold payment of the state’s financialobligation to the Ohio River ValleySanitation Compact.

To be sure, another factor behindthe New England Higher EducationCompact’s durability is the growingpublic interest in the RSP. There is

hardly a legislative district in NewEngland that does not have con-stituents who have benefited from theprogram. It is fair to assume that publicsupport for the tuition-savings programbecame clear to Dukakis administra-tion officials in 1989 when the threat oflosing RSP savings sparked a huge out-cry from the public and media alike. Italso appears clear to most of theregion’s current governors. As Gov.Lincoln Almond of Rhode Island hasobserved: “The RSP is one of the mostaffordable and comprehensive pro-grams for students in our region. Bypooling the resources of the six NewEngland States, we broaden education-al opportunities for young people andalso contribute to the growth anddevelopment of the region.”

Over the course of more than a half-century, despite several close calls,there has never had to be a court casein New England to enforce state obliga-tions under the compact. But questionsraised by state officials have broughtforth advisory opinions from the attor-neys general of both Maine andConnecticut, upholding the legalrequirements of the compact and thecompact’s language requiring a two-year waiting period once a state givesnotice of intention to withdraw. Thereare no attorney general opinions inNew England to the contrary.

It seems reasonable to expect thatas long as New England residents bene-fit from lower-cost, broader educationalopportunities made possible by theNew England Higher EducationCompact, NEBHE’s forward lookingprograms are likely to grow and pros-per. The modest sums of money thatthe states pay under the compact tofund NEBHE, in fact, pale before thesavings associated with avoiding dupli-cation of costly academic programsand the increased opportunity to edu-cate citizens for the demands of NewEngland’s knowledge-driven economy.

Melvin H. Bernstein is a senior

fellow at the New England Board

of Higher Education. A lawyer and

political scientist, Bernstein wrote two

1990 legal briefs on state responsibili-

ties under the New England Higher

Education Compact.


AdjunctivitisDeborah Hirsch

Teaching Without Tenure: Policies

and Practices for a New Era,

Roger G. Baldwin and Jay L.

Chronister, The Johns Hopkins

University Press, 2001, $32.50

As colleges and universities of all kindsstruggle to maintain financialresources and staffing flexibility, theyincreasingly turn to both part-time andnon-tenure-track faculty.

Education scholars Roger G.Baldwin of the College of William andMary and Jay L. Chronister of theUniversity of Virginia describe thegrowing cadre of full-time, non-tenure-track faculty and its impact on highereducation as well as institutional poli-cies aimed at integrating these facultyinto the academic community.

The authors conducted a nationalstudy of the growing use of full-time,non-tenure-track faculty in four-yearcolleges and universities. They exam-ined 1988 and 1993 national studies ofpostsecondary faculty in addition totheir own survey of higher educationinstitutions, and conducted extensiveinterviews on 12 campuses.

Their study reveals the diversity ofinterests and motivations, career goalsand aspirations among the one-fifth ofall full-time faculty at four-year institu-tions who are non-tenure-track.Baldwin and Chronister offer a typolo-gy of these faculty members based ontheir roles and educational attainment.

One type are the “teachers.” Withteaching their primary activity, they

are less likely to have doctorates, serveon fewer committees and tend to pub-lish less than their tenured or tenure-track colleagues. They are more likelyto be women and to be paid less. Someare women on the “mommy track” or“trailing spouses.”

In contrast, the group referred to asthe “researchers” are more likely to beyoung males. About 20 percent of themare minorities. They are prolific schol-ars in terms of publications. Some areconducting research funded by a grant,others are recent graduates hoping tomove into a tenure-track position.

The third category of non-tenure-track faculty, the “administrators,”teach, but also maintain administrativeresponsibilities such as directing pro-jects or programs. They tend to bemore involved in institutional serviceand sit on more committees than anyother group.

Finally, Baldwin and Chronisterclassify those who don’t fit any of these

groups as the “other academic profes-sionals.” They often come from techni-cal or professional fields and bringreal-world experience to connect theorywith practice. These faculty may coor-dinate field programs, serve as principalinvestigators on grants and oversee spe-cial student populations such as minor-ity or international students.

Clearly, some faculty don’t fit neatly into any of these categories, butthe typology seems to capture the vari-ation among the groups. Baldwin andChronister offer compelling fictionalportraits of these faculty based ontheir interviews.

The researchers suggest a similartypology to describe the institutionalapproaches to incorporating non-tenure-track faculty into the academiccommunity. Though it is likely that ele-ments from more than one of the mod-els exist on a given campus, thecategories are helpful in thinking aboutthe range of approaches available forworking with these faculty.

Institutions characterized by the“marginalized” model view non-tenure-track faculty as ways to cut costs andmaintain flexibility. As a result, thesefaculty are not well-integrated withinthe institution. They have little voice ininstitutional decision-making anddepartmental activities. They are usual-ly hired on annual contracts, carryheavy teaching loads and are paid lessthan tenure-track faculty. They are con-sidered less than “real faculty.”

Institutions following the “integrat-ed” model use non-tenure-track facultyto maximize resources as well, butthink of them as a way to enhance

B o sko


program offerings and faculty qualifica-tions. These faculty are viewed asbringing special skills and interests tothe institution and, therefore, tend to bebetter integrated into the academiccommunity.

A growing number of institutions areexploring an “alternative career track”model based on a contract system withbuilt-in benefits, status and respect thatserves as a complete alternative totenure. Though they do not have tenure,these faculty are viewed as equal totheir tenured colleagues in all respects.

Not surprisingly, Baldwin andChronister find that differences in insti-tutional models and faculty roles corre-spond to the satisfaction level of facultymembers and the degree to which theyare integrated into campus life. Facultywho fall into the categories of “tenurehopeful” or “trailing spouse” tend to beparticularly frustrated as they findthemselves stuck in positions with noopportunities for advancement. In con-trast, faculty who are enjoying a secondcareer or who are non-tenure track bychoice find that they are able to pursueprofessional interests and meet person-al needs through these positions.

One of the most disturbing findingsin the study is that the full-time, non-tenure-track category faculty aremore likely to be women and minorities.Often occupying a disadvantaged or sec-ond-class, these faculty typically do nothave equal opportunities for professionaldevelopment, advancement, salary andbenefits or input into institutional gover-nance. They become stigmatizedbecause they don’t publish as much(often due to heavier teaching loads)and are not hired by means of a nationalsearch. This is particularly troubling at atime when many institutions are work-ing to diversify their faculties.

It is apparent that higher education isnot immune to the changes overtakingthe corporate world. The growing numbers of part-time and non-tenure-track faculty demonstrate the need tocreate a hybrid position to meet bothinstitutional needs and personal circum-stances. The authors suggest that insti-tutions consider a number of exemplarypolicies and practices. These include

anyone interested in this topic, Dowieultimately retreats from structural crit-icism. By the book’s end, its conclu-sions add another “progressive” critiqueto the growing body of literature. Onesign of this is that after skewering themeaningless “civil society,” Dowie proceeds to use the word uncriticallyhundreds of times!

The strength of the book lies in itsclear, patient, historical analysis of thefoundation as an American institutionand its accomplishments and shortcom-ings. Although highly critical, the bookis fair and well-documented.

Dowie divides philanthropy’srecord into the areas of education, science, health, the environment,food, energy, art and civil affairs. Ineach cogent and well-organized chap-ter, we see how vague good intentionsin plutocratic hands achieve eliteobjectives that ultimately succeed indisappointing both policymakers andthe foundations themselves.

Education and health care have beenimproved in the 20th century, but alongelitist lines, which have helped the affluent far more than any one else.Having created elitist colleges anddeveloped the “medical model,” founda-tions now scratch their heads as to whysocial problems remain. Foundationsfinanced the “Green Revolution” whichrevolutionized agriculture and food pro-duction in the Third World, but, in theprocess, destroyed village culture andexacerbated inequalities. In the arts,foundation support goes to highly visi-ble projects for elites rather than devel-opment of a popular appreciation of thearts among working and poor people.

In each area, it is not evil peoplenor evil intents at issue, but rather the tendency of social elites who controlfoundations to fund programs thatmake the world look more like them—usually Western and wealthy, and,until recently, white and male. What isso strong about the book is its read-able, journalistic style which accu-rately reflects the historical record,while covering a wide range of areasthat critics of philanthropy usuallyfind isolated in discrete academicjournal articles.

ensuring the academic freedom of allfaculty, paying comparable salaries withequitable benefits, developing clear eval-uation criteria and creating multiyearcontracts with probationary periods.The authors also suggest developing asystem of ranks with possibilities foradvancement, providing a comprehen-sive orientation as well as support forprofessional development, offeringrewards and recognition for outstandingcontributions and ensuring opportuni-ties for meaningful involvement in gover-nance and curriculum development.

The development of flexible, forward-looking institutional policies is critical.But as with most change efforts, thedepartment chair is essential to integrating faculty into the academiccommunity. Most chairs and deans areill-prepared for this role and need support and guidance for orienting, sup-porting and evaluating non-tenure-trackfaculty. Campuses could start by sharing this book with chairs and deans.

Deborah Hirsch is director of the

New England Resource Center for

Higher Education at the University of

Massachusetts Boston.

What GivesDavid Wagner

American Foundations: An

Investigative History, Mark Dowie,

The MIT Press, 2001, $29.95

Journalist Mark Dowie’s book on philanthropy begins with a clever “noteon semantics” offering a wonderful skew-ering of overused terms such as“accountability,” “civil society,” “indepen-dent sector” and “progressive”—buzz-words Dowie identifies with philanthropybut which are similarly worn out by theacademy, liberal corporations and profes-sions such as social work and sociology.

I wish he continued in this vein. Hisstart is not only funny, but an importantcritique of contemporary liberalism aswell as “philanthocracy”—the science ofgiving money by the rich so that theirsins will be forgotten by the rest of us.But while this is an important book for


But like so many liberal and leftobservers, Dowie retreats from his owncritique. Early in the book, he describesfoundations as “drag anchors” on socialchange that are “bland, self-congratula-tory.” By the last (and weakest) twochapters of the book, Dowie has resorted to platitudes: “A healthy community leads to a healthy commu-nity.” And, “If America is to becomemore progressive in fact and outlook, it will be, in part, because its philan-thropists seek social progress.”

Dowie complains that the dominanceof conservatives in the “civility” debatemust be matched by “progressive” foun-dations whom he hopes will put more oftheir money where their mouths are.

I am reminded of the old joke aboutthe group of women who return from aCatskills vacation. They complain thefood was bad and, of course, there wasn’t enough of it! Dowie seems tothink philanthropy would improve ifonly there were more of it.

Ultimately, the book’s weakness is itsinattention to how the extraction, accu-mulation and distribution of wealthcould change.

The author sees capitalism as eter-nal, despite its very short history. He is suspicious of the publicsector and the intervention of government officials, bureaucrats orspecial interests in allocating money. Yetthese suspicions, though understand-able, contradict his thesis about democracy, and his earlier suggestionthat foundations are inherently “ademocratic.”

Yes, in these days of Clinton andBush, Yeltsin and Putin and numerousothers, it is hard to imagine an excitingdemocratic system of public govern-ment. Yet the logic of his argument still fails. If foundationschemes to slightly mitigate the worst ofcapitalist excess through a bit of philanthropy have been a dismal failurefor a century, why will it change now?

David Wagner is a professor at the

University of Southern Maine’s School

of Social Work & Sociology and author

of “What’s Love Got to do with it? A

Critical Look at American Charity.”

Granite StatersJohn O. Harney

The New Hampshire Century:

Concord Monitor Profiles of One

Hundred People Who Shaped It,

Felice Belman and Mike Pride, Eds.,

University Press of New England,

2001, $19.95

New Hampshire has been buckingregional and national trends throughoutthe past century, growing when the restof the region shrank, embracing localrule as state and federal powers grew,going its own way. Who made it so?

Editors of the capital city’s daily news-paper, the Concord Monitor, look at 20th-century New Hampshire by profiling 100famous and not-so-famous people whohave called the state home: fromteacher/astronaut Christa McAuliffe topoet Donald Hall to U.S. Supreme CourtJustice David Souter. There are lessfamous shapers too, including astonewall builder, a computer expert anda survivor of the Spanish Flu of 1918.

The book is edited by Monitor editorMike Pride and former Monitor city editor Felice Belman, now with theWashington Post.

The collection is written in the easyjournalistic style of newspaper profiles,making some of the pieces frustratinglybrief. Exactly five paragraphs are devoted to John Sununu, the high-tech era governor who doggedMassachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakisthroughout the 1988 presidential elec-tion and was rewarded with the chief ofstaff job under the elder George Bush.

A profile of the first two women elect-ed to the New Hampshire Legislature,Jessie Doe and Mary Louise RolfeFarnum, weighs in at just three para-graphs, but is interesting nonethelessgiven New Hampshire’s national leader-ship in electing women lawmakers. Aboutthis phenomenon, the editors quote 1990sHouse Speaker Donna Sytek: “You canalways find women in the world’s lowest-paying jobs.” New Hampshire legislatorstoday earn $100 a year for their service inConcord just as Doe and Farnum did.

A longer essay on Carlton Fisk is ahome run, explaining how the Red Sox

catcher grew up in snowy Charlestown,N.H., where “the growing season is justtoo short” for ballplayers, how Fiskmade his home in New Hampshire evenafter making the majors, and how thechurch bells rang in Charlestown at12:33 a.m. after the favorite son famous-ly coaxed a 12th inning home run overFenway Park’s Green Monster to wingame six of the 1975 World Series.

The editors offer a fascinating accountof the life of labor leader Elizabeth Flynn,from her activist grandfather’s role in aplot to set up an independent republic inCanada, through her shuttling the chil-dren of striking workers’ out of harm’sway in Lawrence, Mass., to her leadershipof the American Communist Party andher state funeral in Moscow.

Of course, places and times are not really shaped only by people’s good sides, and The New Hampshire

Century’s panicky exits when lives goawry gets tiresome. For example, thechapter on Sherman Adams is goodenough, but the scandal involvingBoston textile manufacturer BernardGoldfine that ultimately cost Adamsthe perceived role as Ike’s righthandYankee is relegated to a single mentionin the final paragraph. The lack ofpreparation offered the reader for NewDealer Gov. John Winant’s 1947 suicideis even more perplexing. Ultimately,the profiles are endearing, if a bit eco-nomical—just like New Hampshire.

John O. Harney is executive editor of

CONNECTION.


C A M P U S

DURHAM, N.H.—The University of NewHampshire’s Center for the Humanitiesreceived a $150,000 grant from theNational Endowment for the Humanitiesto complete work on The Encyclopedia

of New England Culture. The 1,500-page,illustrated volume, to be published byYale University Press, will include 1,200entries on New England history, folklore,and literature as well as architecture,industry, medicine and the environment.

BOSTON, MASS.—Boston University’sSchool of Management was awarded afive-year, $5 million gift from LucentTechnologies of New Jersey to researchand develop new business models thatare conducive to the mobile Internet.Among other things, researchers willexplore how consumers are affected bythe onslaught of wireless devices suchas PalmPilots and cellular phones. TheLondon Business School and France’sINSEAD business school also received$2.5 million each under Lucent’sMobility Innovation Initiative.

BIDDEFORD, MAINE—The University ofNew England was awarded a four-year,$1.4 million grant from the NationalInstitutes of Health to fund research intowhy people with diabetes are at greaterrisk for heart disease. The university,which offers a four-year osteopathicmedical school curriculum and two-yearfamily practice residency program, alsoreceived a three-year, $840,000 grantfrom the federal Bureau of HealthProfessions to expand pediatrics educa-tion and a three-year, $540,000 grant fromthe bureau to better integrate its first twoyears of classroom learning with the sec-ond two years of clinical learning.

NEW HAVEN, CONN.—A Yale Universityeconomics professor was awarded atwo-year, $1.3 million grant from theGlaser Foundation to develop ways totrack and measure economic and socialactivities that are not reflected in market transactions. William D.Nordhaus, Yale’s Sterling Professor ofEconomics, will create a prototype setof “non-market accounts” to measureeconomic contributions associated withthe environment, non-market use of time,and nonprofit and volunteer activities.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—Harvard Universitypledged $1 million per year for five yearstoward a $23 million partnership createdto support after-school programs inBoston. Boston’s After-School for AllPartnership aims to improve academicachievement while reducing crime ratesamong young people. The initiative isfunded by the city of Boston, the BostonFoundation, the Nellie Mae Foundationand local foundations and corporations.

DURHAM, N.H.—The University of NewHampshire, Dartmouth Medical Schooland the New Hampshire Department ofHealth and Human Services jointlyestablished the New Hampshire Institutefor Health Policy and Practice to conductapplied research on health policy issues.Among other things, the UNH-basedinstitute will study long-term care anddevelop ways to convert the state’s hugevolumes of health data into meaningfulcommunity health information.

BOSTON, MASS.—The University ofMassachusetts, the MassachusettsExecutive Office of Health and HumanServices and the governor’s officelaunched a website to offer detailedinformation about Massachusetts hospi-tals and health maintenance organiza-tions, Medicare and treatment options.

BURLINGTON, VT.—University of Vermontresearchers were awarded a five-year,$16 million grant from the NationalCancer Institute to study how mediamessages can be used to deter adoles-cents from smoking cigarettes. EarlierUVM research suggested that messagesfeaturing non-smoking role models aremore effective than shocking imagessuch as blackened lungs in preventingteens from smoking. Supported by newTobacco Settlement money, states andcommunities are using media cam-paigns to try to halt sharply rising ratesof smoking among youths.

LOWELL, MASS.—The University ofMassachusetts Lowell was awarded athree-year, $4.7 million grant from theNational Institute of EnvironmentalHealth Sciences to expand a NewEngland-wide worker health and safetytraining program. The grant will allowthe New England Consortium at

UMass Lowell to develop Web-basedsimulations of hazardous waste oremergency response situations as wellas Web-based course evaluation initia-tives and environmental literacy projectsinvolving community organizations,labor and health officials in four NewEngland states.

WELLESLEY, MASS.—Massachusetts BayCommunity College received $259,000worth of engineering software from theLos Angeles-based Structural Research &Analysis Corp. Used in applications fromauto manufacturing to medical devices,the COSMOS/M design analysis softwareallows students to examine parts andassemblies for stress, displacement, buck-ling and other design flaws, and to modi-fy their models to create a better design.

ORONO, MAINE—The University ofMaine’s Advanced Engineered WoodComposites Center was awarded$100,000 from the Maine TechnologyInstitute to establish a wood/thermoplas-tic extrusion facility. Also supported bythe U.S. Department of Agriculture, theNational Science Foundation and theMaine Science and TechnologyFoundation, researchers at the centerwill combine recycled plastic and someof the more than 500,000 tons of sawdustgenerated annually by Maine mills to cre-ate new products such as deckingboards, roof shingles and furniture.

NEW HAVEN, CONN.—Yale University’sSchool of Forestry and EnvironmentalStudies was awarded a $1.2 million grantfrom the Henry Luce Foundation to estab-lish a collaborative program focusing onthe environmental consequences of indus-trial activity in Asia. The Luce grant sup-ports faculty and student exchangesbetween Yale and Asian universities,preparation of teaching materials targetedfor Asian audiences and executive trainingin environmental management in Asia.The school was also awarded a three-year,$135,000 grant from the ComptonFoundation of California to fund researchfellowships in environment and sustain-ability for graduate students. Fellowshipswill be targeted at students from Mexico,Central America and sub-Saharan Africawho intend to return to their native coun-tries after completing their studies.


CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—Actress JaneFonda donated $12.5 million to HarvardUniversity’s Graduate School ofEducation to launch the Harvard Centeron Gender and Education. Researchers atthe interdisciplinary center will explorehow gender affects education in theUnited States and around the world. Thegift includes $2.5 million to create anendowed faculty chair to be named forHarvard gender studies expert CarolGilligan, whose three decades of researchinspired Fonda to make the donation.

PORTLAND, MAINE—The University ofSouthern Maine received a $2.2 milliongift from the Bernard Osher Foundationto expand its Senior College whichalready provides noncredit courses toabout 600 older people in the Portlandarea. The university’s largest-ever cashgift will allow the Senior College tointroduce a research component focus-ing on approaches to learning for olderadults, create an endowment for operat-ing funds and provide scholarships forlow-income seniors. The college will berenamed the Osher Lifelong LearningInstitute in honor of the Maine nativeturned California businessman.

BURLINGTON, VT.—Champlain Collegewas awarded a five-year, $250,000 grantfrom the Christian A. Johnson EndeavorFoundation of New York to support itsinnovative summer reading program.Champlain students, faculty and staffread the same book over the summer,then share their ideas at interdiscipli-nary workshops. In September, theauthor visits the Champlain campus.

BOSTON, MASS.—Urban College ofBoston and the University ofMassachusetts Boston signed an articu-lation agreement providing a direct pathfrom Urban College associate degreeprograms into bachelor’s programs atthe UMass Boston College of Public andCommunity Service. Established by theantipoverty agency, Action for BostonCommunity Development, UrbanCollege enrolls about 700 low-incomestudents from the inner city.

WALTHAM, MASS.—Brandeis Universityannounced it would offer the nation’s

C A M P U S

bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fieldssuch as business and public health. Theuniversity appointed former RensselaerPolytechnic Institute distance learningauthority Jack Wilson to head the five-campus initiative. UMassOnline alsojoined 30 other colleges in a five-year,$480 million project to deliver distancelearning programs to U.S. military per-sonnel worldwide.

NORTHFIELD, VT.—Norwich Universityannounced it would sell VermontCollege to the Union Institute ofCincinnati. The Montpelier-basedVermont College merged with Norwichin 1972 and has since evolved from atwo-year women’s college into a pro-gressive campus dedicated exclusivelyto adult and distance learning. Norwichofficials noted that the “separation”would allow America’s oldest privatemilitary academy to focus on its prima-ry business of educating cadets andcivilians in character development.

first masters-level Internet studies pro-gram, beginning in fall 2001. The pro-gram will allow undergraduates to thinkcritically about the Internet’s impact onsociety. Courses will explore topicsranging from visual culture and the lawto social relations in cyberspace.

BOSTON, MASS.—Simmons Collegeestablished the nation’s first master’sdegree program in competitive intelli-gence. To accommodate professionalsworking in the field, Simmons plannedto offer certificate- and master’s-levelcourses in competitive intelligence fromThursdays through Saturdays.Competitive intelligence involves gather-ing and analyzing information aboutbusiness issues, often using unpublishedsources, in an effort to give a firm a com-petitive advantage.

BOSTON, MASS.—The University ofMassachusetts launched UMassOnline,a Web-based learning program offering


D A T A C O N N E C T I O N

■ Average first-year pay, including signing bonuses, among Boston University’s MBA class of 2000: $89,560

■ Average one year earlier: $69,000

■ Percentage of University of Massachusetts Amherst students planning to seek information technology jobs upon graduation who say

they are interested in working in Western Massachusetts: 39%

■ Percentage of local community college students planning to seek information technology jobs upon graduation who say they are: 90%

■ Range in age of spring 2001 semester students at Quinebaug Valley Community-Technical College: 15-82

■ Ratio of male-to-female annual earnings among Hispanic college graduates in 1975: 2.4 to 1

■ Ratio in 1997: 1.3 to 1

■ Percentage of non-whites who say their local newspaper has become more accurate in recent years: 43%

■ Percentage of whites who say so: 27%

■ Number of U.S. students studying abroad in 1990: 70,727

■ Number in 1999: 129,770

■ Respective ranks of Dartmouth College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute among all U.S. doctoral institutions in the percentage of

students studying abroad: 1,2

■ Approximate ratio of foreign students on New England college campuses to New England students studying abroad: 4 to 1

■ Minimum contribution for which Worcester Polytechnic Institute permanently displays a corporation’s logo on the “Corporate Partners

Wall” at the college’s new campus center: $10,000

■ Number of former administrators at the University of Hartford who are now college presidents: 9

■ Percentage of Americans who have a “very” or “somewhat” favorable impression of college presidents: 66%

■ Percentage who say they “seldom” or “almost never” hear about college presidents: 66%

■ Percentage of Americans who say federal support for scientific research should be increased over the next three years: 37%

■ Percentage who said so in 1995: 19%

■ Percentage of white Americans who say public universities are of lower quality than private universities and offer students less: 20%

■ Percentage of African-Americans who do: 36%

■ Percentage of parents who say private schools have higher standards than public schools: 35%

■ Percentage who said so four years ago: 42%

■ Vote by which the Massachusetts Association of School Committees last November called on the state to suspend use of the

controversial MCAS exam to determine high school graduation: 137-30

■ Median salary of athletics directors at U.S. doctoral institutions: $125,556

■ Median salary of student financial aid directors at U.S. doctoral institutions: $76,683

■ Price paid to Massachusetts growers for one barrel of cranberries, fall 2000: $10

■ Price paid to for one barrel three years earlier: $80

■ Miles of “working waterfront” among Maine’s 7,000 miles of shorefront property: 25

Sources: 1,2 Boston University; 3,4 Youlanda Gibbons and Elizabeth Williams, University of Massachusetts Amherst; 5 Quinebaug Valley Community-Technical College; 6,7 Educational TestingService analysis of U.S. Census data; 8,9 American Journalism Review/Ford Foundation; 10,11,12 Institute for International Education; 13 NEBHE analysis of Institute for International Educationdata; 14 Worcester Polytechnic Institute; 15 University of Hartford; 16,17,18,19,20,21 American Council on Education; 22,23 Public Agenda; 24 National Center for Fair & Open Testing; 25,26College and University Professional Association for Human Resources; 27,28 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; 29 Maine Sustainable Development Working Group.

new england’s journal of higher …...raising pell in march, democrats in the u.s. house proposed...

Documents